The ninth GCC Banking Conference will be taking place in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The event, to be held under the patronage of Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa,  is set for March 24 and 25, 2009, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel & Spa.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) in cooperation with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretariat General is organising this conference under the theme “A New Era in International Banking Practices: Implications for the GCC Markets.”

The event has been taking place for over 15 years, and is hosted by each of the Gulf countries in rotation. 

The conference will feature two keynote speakers: director of the London School of Economics (LSE) Sir Howard Davies and Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Dr Martin Feldstein.

Sir Howard, keynote speaker for Day One of the Conference, will speak on “Global Financial Market Developments”.

Sir Davies was chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which is the single regulator for the UK financial sector and was created from nine separate regulatory agencies under his leadership.

He also served as deputy governor of the Bank of England from 1995-1997.  In his earlier career he worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and HM Treasury, both as an official and as special adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Drn Feldstein, the keynote speaker for Day Two, will speak on “Government Intervention during the Financial Crisis”.

He was previously chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and President Reagan's chief economic adviser. He served as President of the American Economic Association in 2004; and in 2006, President Bush appointed him to be a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Dr Feldstein is a member of the American Philosophical Society, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Fellow of the National Association of Business Economics. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of 30, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“We are delighted to be hosting this Conference for the second time since it was first hosted by the Kingdom in 1996. This year represents a tremendous shift in fiscal policies across the globe and we are delighted to be playing a key role in redefining best banking practices for the GCC region,” said governor of the CBB Rasheed Al Maraj.

The prestigious line-up of speakers at the ninth GCC Banking Conference will feature a number of leading experts from international institutions, regulatory agencies, educational institutions, and banking and financial organisations.

This important financial forum will be attended by all the governors of the GCC Central Banks and Monetary Agencies, heads of GCC Capital Markets, senior bankers from the region, as well representatives of the world’s leading international financial institutions.

The conference will be divided into five plenary sessions over a two day period and will conclude with a regional Governors meeting on the final day of the conference to determine required action and implementation.

Further details on the sessions will be announced at a later date. – TradeArabia News Service