His Excellency Dr. Fahad Ibrahim Alshathri, deputy governor for Supervision at the Saudi Central Bank participated in the conference titled "The Future of Finance" held on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, as part of the events and activities taking place at "Expo 2020 Dubai".

In a keynote speech delivered at the opening of the conference, Alshathri expressed a great pleasure to attend the conference, together with governors of other central banks, representatives of government bodies, key industry figures in the field, and heads of financial and technological institutions from around the world. His Excellency discussed the new developments in the global and regional financial services industry amid the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing out the importance of expertise and knowledge sharing to overcome the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the financial sector. He also emphasized the risks associated with new digital initiatives and their impact on the existing system, as well as the importance to improve the regulatory and supervisory role of central banks and other regulators, underlining the need to strengthen cooperation between central banks in addressing green finance, payment systems, and Islamic finance.

The Deputy Governor stressed that the rapid digital transformation in the financial sector, increased reliance on outsourcing activities and remote work is associated with operational and cybersecurity risks. Thus, it requires joint efforts by regulatory and supervisory bodies to understand, identify and address the underlying changes in the financial system. Alshathri concluded that the Saudi Central Bank strives to maintain strong relationships and ties with the legislative, regulatory, supervisory and financial sectors to improve expertise and knowledge sharing and discuss opportunities and challenges for a better future and mutual benefits.