Council of Arab Central Banks Governors to convene in Cairo by mid-September

Meeting will discuss regional and international monetary, financial, and economic developments

Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Gamal Negm, participated in the meeting of the Council of Arab Central Banks Governors and Arab Monetary Institutions held on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, on behalf of the CBE Governor Tarek Amer.
During the meeting, the permanent bureau of the council agreed to hold its 43rd annual meeting in Cairo in the middle of September upon the CBE invitation.
The meeting will discuss regional and international monetary, financial, and economic developments and their implications for Arab countries. The meeting will also address other topics, such as the governance of central banks and digital currencies.
The meeting also discussed the banking supervision of local systemically important financial institutions, operational risk management frameworks, the relation between operational risk and cybersecurity, digital banking identity, responsible finance, trade in risky assets and their impact on financial stability, and encrypted currencies' impact on the financial sector.
The council addressed the size of the household debt in Arab countries and its impact on financial stability, the financial soundness indicators and risk identification in the corporate sector and their implications for the financial sector in the Arab countries, the use of digital currencies in payment, the experience of immediate payments in the Arab countries, and the blockchain technology uses in payments.
The council agreed to review this meeting's reports and recommendations in the next meeting.
It also stressed the importance of following up the work of international institutions and committees to address their recommendations and reports.
The meeting also welcomed forming a working group on financial technology, stressing the great importance of the group in spreading knowledge and enhancing the exchange of experience among Arab countries in this vital field.
The council called on the group to develop programmes and initiatives that would develop financial technology industry in Arab countries, stressing the importance of hedging against the risks that may arise in this regard. They also considered the establishment of a regulatory laboratory at the level of the Arab region to encourage Arab financial technology companies.
The Sunday meeting also approved the issues proposed to be included in the unified Arab speech to be delivered by the Arab delegation to the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, scheduled for October.