Leaders of finance from over 50 public sector and private financial institutions in the Gulf, the Middle East, Europe, and the US took part in a symposium on “Managing Risk Amid Market Turmoil: Implications for the Middle East.”

The event was held at Four Seasons Hotel in Doha, Qatar.

The meeting was organised by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in partnership with the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) and Commercialbank of Qatar.

Chairmen, CEOs and chief risk officers of banks, as well as central bankers and other public sector officials, highlighted the critical importance of strengthening risk management practices. 

CEO and director general of the QFCA,  which has 79 licensed institutions, Stuart Pearce noted that a central purpose of the meeting was to raise awareness of recent major reports issued on the implications of the global financial market turmoil seen in recent months, including the “Interim Report of the IIF Committee on Market Best Practices,” published in mid-April.
 
The IIF is the global association of financial services firms with more than 370 member institutions.

“The Interim Report reviews the fundamental issues posed by the recent market stress.  Our goal is to develop recommendations, which, when adopted, can contribute not only to orderly management of the market stress, but more importantly to improved business practices going forward which can help to prevent recurrences of crises in the future,” said IIF deputy managing director Ronald Stanley.

Senior vice-president for Risk Management at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and member of the Senior Supervisors Group, representing regulators in a number of countries, Brian Peters addressed the delegates.

The symposium enabled an exchange of views among leading officials, regulators, and industry experts on critical risk management issues. The meeting, in particular, provided financial professionals in Qatar, the Gulf, and Middle East, with an opportunity to keep abreast of the latest techniques and developments in risk management, to assess the implications of the ongoing financial market volatility, to consider the lessons learned, and to strengthen risk management at their own institutions.

Issues on the meeting’s agenda included setting a bank’s risk appetite; the evolving role of the chief risk officer; credit, market, and liquidity risk; governance and risk management; and the role of risk management in the credit rating process.  – TradeArabia News Service