rasheed al maraj : financial technology and its impact on the banking and financial sector keynote address by his excellency rasheed mohammed al maraj, governor of the central bank of bahrain, at the 1st middle east and africa fintech forum, manama, 29 march 2017. * * * your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, assalam u alaikum and good morning. i welcome you all to the afs fintech conference. this conference will discuss a very important and topical subject – financial technology and its impact on the banking and financial sector. afs deserves our appreciation for arranging this conference. we are living in an era of unprecedented changes mainly brought about by technological advancement. technology was once the backoffice function of a bank. then came the time when technology took the front seat and started driving the industry. now we are witnessing the next phase when technology is defining financial services. technology influences heavily the banks ’ strategy. if a bank is unable to satisfy its tech - savvy customers in an era of super mobility, hyper connectivity and immense computing power, it risks losing them to competition. this is the new normal. at the central bank of bahrain we understand the disruptive nature of fintech to business models and jobs but we have made a conscious decision to adopt it. the pace of innovation is not reversible, so the only choice we have is how well we prepare ourselves for the disruption. the cbb issued yesterday a white paper for consultation on a regulatory sandbox for fintech in which new companies can test their fintech solutions. we will also issue by the end of next month draft rules for consultation on crowdfunding platforms for both conventional and sharia compliant services. we will also release soon our new directives on cloud computing. these new initiatives are continuation of our efforts to provide the right mix of policies and products to develop and enhance the quality and competitiveness of services in the financial sector. bahrain has had a long history of proactive adoption of new technology. in the past few years the cbb has taken a number of important steps in this regard, which include : introduction of a new license of payment service provision and allowing payment service providers to issue prepaid cards to allow the unbankable segment access to affordable payment services including remittances. introduction of efts commercially known as fawri and fawrit as mandatory for all retail banks. the cbb is all for embracing innovation and new

rasheed mohammed al maraj : brief review of bahrain ’ s financial market developments speech by his excellency rasheed mohammed al maraj, governor of the central bank of bahrain, at the tradequest challenge awards presentation and luncheon, manama, 28 april 2007. * * * your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. assalam alaikum wa - rahmatullahi wa barakatuh it is a pleasure for me to be here today, and to show my support for the tradequest challenge programme. i should like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported this initiative, be they the financial community, the schools, or the participants and their parents. programmes such as these are collective efforts, and require the support of many. however, i should like to thank in particular the bahrain institute of banking & finance and the american association of bahrain, for their efforts in jointly establishing and managing this annual competition. special congratulations are of course also due to the students who took part in this year ’ s competition, for their commitment to learning about the world of financial markets and investment. before we start presenting the students with their well - earned certificates, i hope you will allow me if just say a few words about the significance of this programme, and its relevance to the development of bahrain ’ s financial markets. bahrain, as i am sure you are all aware, has a long and distinguished track record as the leading financial centre in the gcc. today, financial services accounts for almost 27 % of the country ’ s gdp, and creates an equally significant share of high value added employment in the economy. it is no exaggeration to say that the health of the financial services industry is of strategic importance to the continued economic well - being of this country. a key element in our success as a nation in this field has been the emphasis placed on developing our own human resources. international and regional institutions come to bahrain, in part, because there is a relatively strong supply of well qualified bahrainis whom they can hire. in turn, this country benefits from the wealth that is created by these financial institutions, and the training and experience gained in the workplace. fundamental to this human resources equation, is that we have people who understand finance and develop an interest in working in this industry. programmes such as these, therefore, play a valuable role in introducing young people to the world of finance, and hopefully giving them an interest in possibly pursuing a