State Council discusses banking sector development

MUSCAT: The second meeting of the second annual session of the 6th term, was held under the chairmanship of Dr Said bin Mubarak al Mahrami, sub-committee of the State Council’s Economic committee, which is in charge of studying the development of capital markets and banking sector.

The meeting on Monday hosted Hamood bin Sangour al Zadjali, Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman and officials at the bank.

The committee members covered a number of themes including the financial, economic and banking conditions in the Sultanate, the cooperation and coordination between the Central Bank of Oman and the other central banks in the GCC States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman affirmed that the banking sector condition in the Sultanate is reassuring. He pointed out that the commercial banks in the Sultanate operate in accordance with the laws and regulations in force.

He affirmed that the CBO is keen on doing every possible effort to develop the banking sector and enhance its role in keeping pace with the economic development to achieve the comprehensive development as outlined by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. He enumerated a number of factors that led to financial stability in the Sultanate on the foremost of which are the control over the monetary policy, risk-based management, implementation of Basel Committee requirements, developing advanced system for payment and settlement, following policies that support growth and containing inflationary pressures.

He pointed out that the gross balances of the commercial banks is growing with improvement in capital adequacy ratios.

The assets of the banks operating in the Sultanate increased to RO 29.8 billion as of the end of October 2016.

The committee also reviewed other items on the agenda and took necessary decisions towards them.