First Saudi-UAE Banks Conference Discusses Challenges, Opportunities Across Banking Sector

The first joint conference between bank officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, UAE, convened in Riyadh on Sunday to deliberate key challenges and opportunities in areas of direct impact on the two countries' banking sectors.

The conference opened in the presence of the Governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, SAMA, Dr. Ahmed Abdulkarim Alkholifey, and Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori, Governor of UAE Central Bank.

Addressing the conference, which was organised by the SAMA in cooperation with the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, Al Mansoori said that the robust partnership between the UAE and Saudi Arabia is likely to ensure continued cooperation and integration in areas of financing, investment and banking activities.

"The UAE-Saudi trade exchanges amounted to over AED107 billion by the end of September 2019," he added, affirming that the two countries are closely monitoring the multi-faceted and rapid global developments associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including blockchain and IoT, thanks to their resilience financial systems and robust FinTech ecosystem.

"This conference aims to consolidate cooperation between the UAE and Saudi banks, highlighting the challenges and ways of facing them in the field of cybersecurity, financial technology, support and financing of SMEs and micro-enterprises as well as taking advantage of the financing and investment opportunities in both countries as they move their economies into 'After oil era'. The two countries share long-term visions to create a brighter future according to UAE Vision 2021 and Saudi Vision 2030."

Alkholifey said that the Kingdom is the UAE’s fourth largest trading partner in the world, and the first in the Gulf and the Arab region. "Remittances to the UAE during the first six months of 2019 amounted to about SAR71 billion, while the value of remittances received during the same period amounted to SAR20 billion."

The conference highlighted the most critical challenges and opportunities facing the banking sector in both countries in the fields of cybersecurity, financial awareness and financial technology, and supporting small and medium enterprises.