Implications of the Political Fluctuations on Banking

8 – 9 December 2019 The Nile Ritz – Carlton Cairo, Egypt

الخلفية:

In the course of 45 years of work to develop and promote the banking profession in the Arab region, and through what was witnessed in the recent years since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and the global financial crisis of 2008, in addition to the waves of terrorism that hit the Arab region, and the escalation of economic crises in most of Arab countries, which led to a deterioration of government budget deficits, increasing public indebtedness, and the huge amounts of money spent to finance wars and conflicts. Only the Arab banking sector has remained resilient and continued supporting governments and economies, while recognizing the need to keep pace with challenges resulting from laws and legislation on one hand, and the responsibility towards the society on the other.

In light of this reality, the Arab banking sector continues to uphold its professional and social backgrounds, through financing and encouraging investment, and going further in enhancing financial inclusion, especially through SME financing and creating jobs that contribute to the development of national economies.

Today, the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) is trying to reinforce the role of banks and redirect banking by highlighting the interest of banks in providing banking services to customers and maintaining their benefits, in order to avoid diverting banks from their initial social and economic roles and transforming them into a judiciary body or a supervisory authority, and push them into adopting the over-tightening policy of de-risking, which affects bank credit, noting that the Arab banks have confirmed their commitment to the compliance rules and the international banking regulations.

UAB aims also to emphasize that the large number of banking laws and regulations should not affect the essential role of banks. Likewise, the international sanctions have forced Arab banks to invest huge amounts on technological infrastructure, human resources, and compliance management, in order to protect themselves from the possibility of being exploited by financial crimes. This means that due diligence requirements, know your customer, and your customer’s customer, have forced banks to exert all their efforts and allocate valuable time in order to verify customers and ensure that there are no breaches of international resolutions and sanctions.

This has restricted banking operations to segments of customers and pushed them out of the financial system, thus weakening financial inclusion.

The message which the UAB aims at launching during its 2019 Arab Annual Conference represents an invitation to the Arab private sector to participate effectively in promoting development, and to Arab banks to redirect their funding capabilities to the real economy and development, and to governments to lower their reliance on borrowing from banks and compete with private sector to obtain funding. Additionally, banks should adhere to managing risks not de-risking, and should comply with laws and regulations, but not follow procedures that may contribute in capital outflows, noting that the application of laws should not prevent financing the development.

This Conference will reassure the traditional role of the Arab banks in providing banking services to their societies such as deposits, loans, wealth and investments management, and supporting social, humanitarian and environmental projects and establishing their role as financial channels that transform national savings into loans for individuals, firms and governments and not becoming a tool in the hands of law enforcement authorities.

TOPICS OF DISCUSSIONS

The conference will discuss the following topics:

1. 1. Investing in Lebanon 
      • Required Economic Reforms
      • Challenges facing Economic development in Lebanon
      • CEDAR conference investment vision to enhance financial & economic stability in Lebanon
      • Lebanon Commitments
      • Arab Support for CEDAR Conference
      • CEDAR & the optimized application prospects of public-private partnership
        
        The role of Arab finance funds in supporting the economy and Development in Lebanon
   2. • The support provided by CEDAR funds
      • Directing Arab funds towards real economy and development
      • Funding priorities for the Lebanese economic sectors

3. Implications of Political Fluctuations on Banking”

1. 1. • Banking in Conflict regions
      • Repercussions on Investment
      • Capital Outflow
      • Implications on Financial & Monetary situations

4. International legislation Challenges on traditional banking”

1. 1. • Application of International legislation
      • Dealing with international sanctions
      • Meeting the requirements of correspondent banks
      • The Dilemma between adhering to legislation and extending credit

5. Changes in banking resulting from financial technology” 

1. 1. • Advantaged and disadvantages of transforming to digital banking
      • The gap between supervision and the rapid development of financial technology
      • Islamic Banking in light of FinTech developments
      • Competition between fintech companies and banks 

6. The need of Public – Private Partnership to uphold National Economies

1. 1. • Restoring Financial & Economic Stability
      • Partnership is a new era for the private sector in economic development
      • The benefits of public-private partnership
      • Sharing the benefits & risks between the two sectors