Central Bank of Oman holds annual meeting with bankers

Muscat: The Annual Bankers Meeting was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Tahir bin Salim Al Amri, Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) along with CEOs and senior officials of the banks operating in Oman.
The meeting was organised by the CBO to highlight the key regulatory developments and to deliberate on emerging challenges faced by the banking industry and way forward.
The Executive President in his inaugural address appreciated the performance of the banking sector during the year 2018 under the challenging macroeconomic conditions.
He emphasised upon the CBO’s strategic role as regulator and supervisor with the aim to put in place a robust regulatory framework, and upgrade the supervisory processes for effective risk based regulations and examination to ensure safety and soundness of financial institutions and promote financial stability.
He also apprised the participants that in order to facilitate the ease of doing business, CBO is working on various projects such as revision in banking law, upgrading the payment systems infrastructure, liquidity management and deposit insurance for Islamic banking entities, AML and CFT Risk Assessment and establishment of National Centre for Credit and Financial Information.
There were discussions on macroeconomic developments in Oman, Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and the world, banking and monetary indicators in Oman, and the outlook for 2019.
The meeting also provided a platform for constructive discussion on other important issues such as ensuring readiness of the banking sector for the implementation of VAT (Value Added Tax), as and when implemented, ‘combating financial crimes and strengthening cyber security’ and ‘post IFRS-9 implementation issues’. Oman Banks Association and audit firm Ernst & Young also made presentations on ‘Islamic Banking: Challenges and Opportunities’ and ‘Common Reporting Standard’ respectively.