In November 2010, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) announced arrangements to expand and formalise outreach beyond its membership. To this end, six regional consultative groups were established to bring together financial authorities from FSB member and non-member countries to exchange views on vulnerabilities affecting financial systems and on initiatives to promote financial stability.
Today, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates hosted the inaugural meeting of the FSB Regional Consultative Group for the Middle East and North Africa in Abu Dhabi. Members discussed the FSB’s work plan and policy priorities, major financial regulatory reforms and their impacts, and vulnerabilities and regional financial stability issues. Discussions on regulatory reforms and their impacts centred around the Basel III capital and liquidity standards, and the host-country perspective on the supervision of Globally Systemically Important Financial Institutions (G-SIFIs). Under the vulnerabilities and regional financial stability issues, members discussed the impact of the sovereign debt crisis, in particular, linkages between sovereign debt and financial sector balance sheets and uncertainty in bank funding. The development of domestic capital markets was the second area of discussion under this heading.
The FSB Regional Consultative Group for the Middle East and North Africa is co-chaired by Fahad Al-Mubarak, Governor, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and Salem Al-Sabah, Governor, Central Bank of Kuwait. The current membership includes financial authorities from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates; other jurisdictions in the region are welcome to join the Regional Consultative Group over time.