RIYADH, 3 September 2006 — Hamad Al-Sayari, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) will inaugurate on Nov. 14 a two-day international conference on “Payment Systems in Saudi Arabia and GCC countries” to discuss the present mode of electronic access to funds at remote locations and future strategies in this regard.
The two-day conference, which will be held at the SAMA Institute of Banking here, will bring together banking experts from the Kingdom and abroad. The high-profile event will feature speakers from the European Central Bank, Bank of International Settlements, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, besides top executives from Saudi, Gulf and other foreign banks.
The timing of the conference is deemed significant, as major developments have taken place since SAMA’s Saudi Payments Network (SPAN) became operational in 1990. During this period, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries have taken a series of measures toward a planned monetary union by 2010. Joining a monetary union is expected to bring several benefits, such as lowering transaction costs, boosting trade, and reducing risk. SAMA’s enhanced payment network is designed to support the widespread deployment of electronic banking services across the Kingdom, while creating a secure and reliable infrastructure for the anticipated growth in card transaction volumes.
The new network is projected to handle up to 1,000 banking transactions per second, and support thousands of ATM and point-of-sale terminals throughout the Kingdom.
Part of SAMA’s strategy in deploying the state-of-the-art payments network was also to support new types of transactions, such as those via mobile phones and the Internet, in a secure and high-performance environment.
This concern has translated into the launch of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which provides secure messaging services and interface software to 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries.
The conference will start with the opening remarks by Al-Sayari. Abdullah Al-Suweilmy, general manager of Tadawul, the Saudi stock exchange, will speak on the trading and settlement of equities, securities and bonds, including the recent developments in the securities market.
