H.E AbdulAziz Abdullah Al Ghurair, Chairman of Emirates Banks Association, has meta high-ranking delegation from the Society For Worldwide International Financial Telecommunications(SWIFT), headed by Mr. Gottfried Lebrandt, the CEO of SWIFT, accompanied by senior Executives.
H.Ewelcomed the delegation and praised thecontinuous cooperation between SWIFT and Emirates Banks Association (EBA) indicating the pioneering role EBA played to introduce SWIFT to the bankingand financial sector in UAE in the late eighties, where it commenced offering its service formally in 1992 by connecting then 13 banks in the UAE, where the number of users reached 124 by the end of September 2012 including banks and a number of exchange companies and other financial institutions.
H.E highlighted theUAE solid economic position in general and the banking sector in particular, pointing to the continued development and growth in all banking indicators, and its ability to meet the international standards requirements, and its success in managing & dealing with crises, as reflected in positive reports of relevant international organizations and in particular the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the global rating agencies.
During the meeting, SWIFT Delegation disclosed the ongoing preparations for holding SIBOS - 2013, the SWIFT annual conference, which will be held for the first time in the Middle East in Dubai, with expectation of about 7000 participants to attend from all over the world.
H.E welcomed the initiative of holding SIBOS – 2013 inUAE,the country which provided all capabilities with highest international standards to host and welcome a big number of annual conferences and exhibitions, referring to the successful most significant key event of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group held in Dubai in 2003, attended by more than sixteen thousand participants..
In addition, the United Arab Emirates has also hosted “MERC”, the regional conference for SWIFT Middle East, 4 times since it was held in Dubai for the first time in 2003 ,and most recently the Sixth Congress in 2010.
It is worth noting thatthe United Arab Emirates ranks first regionally for incoming and outgoing messages through SWIFT, and has ranked nineteenth worldwide in terms of the number of incoming messages, and the twentieth in terms of outgoing messages.
The incoming messages of the state through Swift reached 42% of the total incoming messages to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and outgoing messages achieved 39% of the total number of outgoing messages from the GCC countries.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Sido Bestani, SWIFT Regional Head Middle East and North Africa (MENA) , as well as Mr. Nasser Sarris, General Manager of Emirates Banks Association and Chairman of SWIFT Users Group ( UAE).