political mood has changed. therefore, we might see gradual tightening of the scrutiny on capital flows from swf countries, at one stage, especially funds that are destined for direct investment in certain companies. faced with all this nonsense, swfs will certainly come to the conclusion that it is time to change strategy. this could make swfs avoid direct investment in certain companies, or even avoid direct investment in all companies, and become more of passive investment vehicles in the west. as, swfs have large sums to invest, this might make them direct part of their investments to existing or newly created companies in the region. this situation, if it happens soon, will lead to creating a new regional developmental cycle. third : linking regional payment systems linking regional payment systems and using local currencies for settlement of transactions should be a long - term objective for countries in the menasa area, as this will improve speed, efficiency and will achieve transaction cost reduction, for the benefit of cross - border trade, investment flows and tourism business. achieving this would be a big challenge, because the good old routes, which we all are used to, will have to be abandoned. also, trust in each other ’ s national currency in addition to trust in the efficiency of national payment systems across regions is another challenge. however, these challenges can be overcome over a period of time, maybe depositing of the settlement amount with the counterpart payment system provider in the recipient country would create the required trust. to build trust in national payment systems, it will also be necessary for the national regulatory authority to take a leadership role. payment systems on the national level should be unified into one system, and operate with strict rules for action against mistakes or events of fraud through members. to achieve some form of common payment system among menasa area countries, it will be necessary to : 1. identify countries that are ready to be linked, through national payment systems that satisfy certain pre - set standards. 2. setting - up of a steering committee, consisting of technical staff representing the national payment systems, who would agree to work on a certain strategy aimed at achieving a common payment system, that would use local currencies for settlement, at a future stage. forth : investment in infrastructural projects encouraging regional capital flows aimed at investment in infrastructural projects in the menasa area countries should be encouraged through capital markets. this could be achieved through allowing corporations that are in marine transportation, air transportation, rail road companies

sultan bin nasser al - suwaidi : strengthening financial sector supervision and current regulatory priorities welcoming remarks by h e sultan bin nasser al - suwaidi, governor of the central bank of the united arab emirates, at the 9th high - level meeting for the middle east & north africa region on “ strengthening financial sector supervision and current regulatory priorities ”, organized by the basel committee on banking supervision ( bcbs ), the financial stability institute ( fsi ) and the arab monetary fund ( amf ), abu dhabi, 18 november 2013. * * * good morning excellencies - the honorable, josef tosovsky, chairman of the bis financial stability institute, - h. e. dr. jassim al mannai, general manager & chairman of the arab monetary fund, - distinguished guests, - ladies & gentlemen, 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 stefan ingves, governor, sveriges riksbank and the honorable eric rosengren, president & ceo federal reserve bank of boston, and the distinguished speakers. first of all, i take this opportunity to thank the organizers for their careful selection of the meeting title : “ strengthening financial sector supervision and current regulatory priorities ”, also for the choice of the excellent topics of discussion. i believe this meeting will definitely help regulators in the mena region develop appropriate methodologies, regulations and macro - prudential oversight regimes that would help us all achieve our objectives, in a more efficient and improved manner. regulatory development is currently a key focus for central bank of the uae. very briefly, i would like to mention our two recent regulations, namely : 1 ) regulations regarding mortgage loans, and 2 ) regulations re monitoring large exposure limits i would not go into details of these two regulations, as their details are available on the central bank website ( or will be available very soon ). however, what concerns us at central bank of the uae, is that with strengthening regulations and related supervision, extension of credit through the banking system will be impacted. and since we are operating in one of the developing economies in the region, we believe that we have to support economic and social development. for this reason we have to focus on certain initiatives that could mitigate the impact that would come through strengthening regulations and related supervision, such as : 1 ) financial inclusion : in this respect, and