that, in 2002, bahrain was the first country in the region to adopt a single regulator model for the financial services industry and create a one - stop shop for today ’ s complex and internationally active financial firms, whose product offerings are not restricted purely to one type of financial service. the single regulator structure has also enabled the cbb to apply uniform standards of regulation and supervision to all our licensees, be they banks, insurance firms or capital market players. the 6 - volume cbb rulebook is at the very core of our regulatory development and enhancement programme, which is driving the continued growth and development of bahrain ’ s financial sector. a forward - looking, market - enabling regulatory framework for the insurance and takaful industry has helped attract a critical mass of takaful and retakaful providers in bahrain. all this is providing the momentum for the double - digit growth we are seeing in the insurance and takaful sector. the cbb is also focusing much attention on upgrading and enhancing regulations governing capital markets, which are central to the functioning of a modern, sophisticated financial centre. the recent volatility in international stock markets underscores the need for transparency which the cbb has achieved through enhanced disclosure standards introduced as of the start of this year. nevertheless, adapting and adopting new and enhanced regulations is not a panacea for maintaining sound and stable financial institutions and financial systems. we, the regulators, and the industry need to work together to maintain the integrity of our institutions, financial systems and confidence in our jurisdictions. i can assure the industry that the cbb strives to be an even - handed, transparent regulator and that we are open to suggestions from the industry. finally, i wish you a pleasant stay in bahrain and a fruitful discussion during the conference. thank you.

scope that the single regulator model offers. for a relatively small country such as ours, the impact of these economies was significant. we have been able to utilize scarce specialist resources, such as our on - site examiners, who were previously available only in the bma, across the different sectors. we have also been able to apply the more extensive supervisory experience and institutional capacity available in the bma across the other sectors as well. and we have been able to centralize and undertake more efficiently key functions such as policy development. the net result has been to upgrade significantly the quality of regulation and supervision applied to non - banking sectors, at a time when insurance and capital markets activities are fast developing regionally. in 2005, for instance, we introduced a completely new rulebook for the insurance sector, including the first prudential rules specific to takaful firms ; and we followed this up with a completely new rulebook for investment firms in 2006. now, we are busy upgrading our capital market rules. whilst convergence within the financial services industry was a secondary factor, it was not insignificant. in particular, the development of capital markets has obviously impacted on our supervision of financial institutions : creating a single regulator gives us the opportunity to streamline notification and approval procedures for financial institutions undertaking such activity. this is something that we are now actively looking to achieve. let me conclude by highlighting what i see as some of the lessons arising out of our experience. first, creating a single regulator can benefit the industry, but only providing the regulator works hard at harmonizing the approaches of its predecessor organizations and internal processes, for instance creating single points of contact at the new regulator for firms. merely merging organizations is not enough. second, combining different regulatory organizations, each with their own corporate cultures and way of doing things, requires a great deal of management attention. staff need to be motivated and retained, to counter the unsettling nature of change. new systems and processes need to be put in place. third, as with most other jurisdictions that have undertaken such reforms, new laws also need to be put in place, which inevitably takes time. in bahrain ’ s case, pending the enactment of a new law in 2006, we were able to make progress by the simple expedient of initially issuing short amendments to existing sector laws, such as our 1987 insurance act – the only change being to transfer regulatory responsibility to the bma. this allowed us to make a start on integrating the different regulatory organizations early on, even