Programme
Day one — Wednesday 28 February 2007
08.30
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Coffee and registration
9.00
Welcome
His Excellency Yousef Kamal
Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Economy and Commerce
9:15
Opening Remarks
Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna al Qasimi
Minister of Economy, UAE
Chairperson, Emirates Securities & Commodities Authority
9:30
Chairman's opening remarks
Jane Diplock
Chairman, Executive Committee, International Organisation of Securities Commissions
Chairman, New Zealand Securities Commission
9:40
Panel session
Regulatory standards and objectives — regional challenges and opportunities
  • What is the regional view of international best practices and mainstream regulatory standards?
  • What challenges and opportunities exist in applying those standards?
  • What is the outlook for a common approach to these issues and what does that mean for regulatory cooperation?
Michael Webb, Managing Director, Financial Sector Development and Policy
Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority
Joyce Maykut QC, General Counsel and Company Secretary
Dubai Financial Services Authority
Ralph Ricks, Advisor to the Governor
Central Bank of Bahrain
10:40
Keynote speaker: Market abuse regimes — what do they need to be effective?
Developing a pan-EU approach to market abuse as part of the programme for establishing a single European market in financial services highlighted a number of issues, e.g. the relevance of dishonest intent, extraterritorial application, differentiation between financial and commodity market activities, and the division of regulatory responsibility between regulators and exchanges. Each of these issues (and others) are important to developing an effective market abuse regime that will be covered in this session.
  • Defining market abuse
  • Monitoring for market abuse
  • Enforcing market abuse
Anthony Belchambers, Chief Executive
Futures and Options Association Chair,
MiFID Connect
11:10
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Coffee
11:30
Panel session
The importance of risk-based regulation: challenges for the region
  • What does risk-based regulation bring to the region?
  • How does one successfully adopt a risk-based approach to regulation?
  • How do regulators manage risks arising from firms? What techniques are used to identify, measure, monitor and control regulatory risks?
Michael Lesser, Managing Director, Supervision of Financial Institutions
Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority
Khalid Hamad, Executive Director, Banking Supervision
Central Bank of Bahrain
12:15
Panel session
Corporate governance
  • What are the challenges in improving corporate governance standards and practices, both internationally and in the Gulf region?
  • How does one go about implementing a corporate governance regime in the Gulf region?
  • The position of boards and executives in an effective corporate governance regime.
  • The role of regulation and regulators in the corporate governance arena.
Andrew Sheng, Board Member, Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority
Former Chairman, Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission
Yousif Hassan, Director, Retail Banking Supervision
Central Bank of Bahrain
Tariq Ali, Senior Consultant,
Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance
13:00
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Networking lunch
14:15
Panel session
Regulation of exchanges
  • Commodities
  • Listing
  • The importance of market transparency
  • Market surveillance
Dr David Rutledge, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Director, DGCX
Sarah Watts, Chief Compliance Officer
Dubai Mercantile Exchange
14:50
Banking supervision: getting ready for Basel II
  • Implementing Basel II into the regional environment
  • What are the current issues in implementation?
  • A global perspective
Yousif Hassan, Director, Retail Banking Supervision
Central Bank of Bahrain
Brian Quinn, Board Member
Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority
15:25
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Afternoon refreshments
15:45
Emerging regulators in the GCC region: a roundtable covering regulatory developments
Alaa Amer, Vice Chairman
Capital Market Authority, Egypt
Maryam Al-Suwaidi, Director, Issuance and Disclosure Dept
Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority
16:30
Insurance and reinsurance for the wholesale markets
  • Background on the insurance industry in Bahrain.
  • Overview on the regulation of insurance in Bahrain.
  • The existing insurance market in Bahrain and the future outlook.
  • The challenges facing the insurance industry in Bahrain and the Middle East.
Abdulrahman Al-Baker, Executive Director, Financial Institutions Supervision
Central Bank of Bahrain
17:00
Islamic financial services and compliance with Sharia'h law
  • What must firms do to become high-end providers of Islamic financial services?
  • What is the methodology?
Dr Mohamad Alchaar, Secretary General
Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions
17:30
Chairman's comments and close of conference day one
Evening Events
18:00
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Cocktail reception
19:30
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Gala dinner
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