sultan bin nasser al - suwaidi : the global financial crisis and issues for a regulatory response welcoming remarks by h e sultan bin nasser al - suwaidi, governor of the central bank of the united arab emirates, at the high - level meeting on “ regulatory & supervisory policies in light of the recent financial crisis ”, organised by the financial stability institute & arab monetary fund, abu dhabi, 16 november 2009. * * * good morning, excellencies ladies & gentlemen y. e. josef tosovsky, y. e. dr. jassim al mannai, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the uae, especially those who traveled a long way to be here with us at the outset of this important high level meeting, and i would mention in particular the honorable thomas hoeing, president of the federal reserve bank of kansas city, and the distinguished speakers. excellencies ladies & gentlemen in this short speech, i will describe briefly the financial package the uae had to make available to banks, to help the banking sector stand in the face of the global financial crisis last year and issues being considered now for a regulatory response. the financial packages a ) central bank of the uae ’ s package central bank made available to banks in the uae certain facilities to help them with shortages of liquidity, its first such facility was made towards the end of september 2008, i will summarize as follows : 1 ) an overdraft facility : an aed 50 billion o / d facility was made available to banks through their current accounts at the central bank. 2 ) cd swap facility : banks were allowed to use 100 % of their central bank cd holdings to borrow dirham and dollar funds from the central bank. 3 ) discounting of government bonds : banks were allowed to borrow against their holdings of bonds and sukuks issued by local governments or local governments ’ companies, with a reasonable hair - cut. 4 ) swap operations ( dirham / us dollar ) : this facility was provided to all banks regardless of their dirham net position. 5 ) support to local governments : central bank discounted, in march 2009, us $ 10 billion of bonds issued by dubai government. b ) uae federal government ’ s package 1 ) federal government guarantee of bank deposits : in october 2008, the cabinet announced that the government will guarantee all deposits at banks licensed and operating in the uae, for 3 years. a plan has been initiated to create a guarantee scheme. 2 ) liquidity

find common approaches to such risks and share best practices. with any new financial product or service that is introduced to the marketplace, we have a responsibility to ensure that the potential risks are clearly identified and measures to mitigate those risks put in place. financial consumers should not be the ‘ laboratory mouse ’. experience has taught us that unexpected problems will still surprise us from time to time despite our best supervisory and regulatory efforts. such potential risks should not necessarily impede progress ; but we must have the foresight to ensure these risks are well managed. the technologies may be new, but most of the risks are similar. regulators and consumers must be assured that risks to stability and integrity – including from cyberattacks, money laundering and terrorism financing – can be effectively managed without impeding innovation growth. as has been well articulated, fintech has the potential to offer services across the country, to all segments of society equally, at less cost and with more convenience in making finance transactions. overall we aim to facilitate the adoption of safe, secure, consumer - centric and innovative digital payments services. indeed, the legal mandate of the central bank uae, also now specifically includes a provision on financial inclusion. in a very strong statement from the uae government, the law states, and i quote, that we shall “ establish necessary regulations and mechanisms to ensure that every natural person shall have the right to access all or part of the banking and financial services and products from licensed financial institutions suited to his / her need ”. to this end, we undertaking transformative changes to cbuae ’ s consumer protection department. the department will bring a clear focus on consumer 3 | page protection, consumer education, literacy and awareness and promote inclusion. all of these components of consumer protection should be a very important part of the dialogue at today ’ s conference. i would like to highlight that solutions for expanding access to appropriate financial services through mobile banking and other forms of branchless banking tend to enhance the convenience for customers. however, they do not necessarily target the unbanked segment of the population. we should therefore be looking to find and promote breakthrough fintech innovations that target the unbanked segments of the population, enhance the degree of financial inclusion and reduces the costs of cross - border remittances. let me conclude by welcoming you again to the conference. and i wish you all a constructive and insightful discussion over two days. thank you. 4 | page