Mohammad Y Al-Hashel: Ensuring stability in turbulent times

Keynote speech by His Excellency Dr Mohammad Y Al-Hashel, Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait, at the 12th High Level Meeting for the Middle East & North Africa Region, jointly organized by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Financial Stability Institute and the Arab Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 7 December 2016.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests,
Sabah-al-khair and a very good morning. 

I am very delighted to be here today and I am grateful to H.E. Dr. Abdulrahman A. Al Hamidy for inviting me to speak before this august gathering. Thanks to the active collaboration of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Financial Stability Institute, and the Arab Monetary Fund, these high-level meetings provide a valuable forum for exchange of views for the regulators and supervisors in the region. 

The agenda of this conference adequately captures key developments, issues, and challenges that we need to focus our attention on. Today, I would like to touch upon two major forces that have swept across the financial world. First is the tech-driven revolution, which has brought its own set of risks and rewards. Second is the wide range of measures that have been introduced to strengthen the resilience of our banking systems.