IMF Conference

Day 1, Wednesday, March 13

8:30 – 9:30

Registration

8:30 – 9:00

Welcome Remarks

9:40– 10:30

Opening Session

Abdellatif Jouhahri, Governor, Bank Al-Maghrib

Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor and Monetary and Capital Markets Department Director, IMF

10:30– 11:00

Group Photograph

11:00 – 12:10

Session 1:Safeguarding Financial Stability

Adapting regulatory frameworks and supervisory practices to facilitate the safe entry of new products, activities, and intermediaries; sustain trust and confidence; respond to risks, and strengthen compliance (e.g., sandboxes, crypto-assets, regtech and suptech, etc.).

Moderator: Michaela Erbenova, Assistant Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF.

Lead-off Speakers:

• Central Bank of Bahrain (Regulatory Sandboxes, Crypto Exchange Regulations)
• Central Bank of Nigeria (Crypto-Assets/Currency and Blockchain Regulations)
• United Arab Emirates - Dubai Financial Services Authority (Approaches to Regulating Fintech)

12:15 – 14:00

Luncheon

14:15 – 15:30

Session 2: Financial Infrastructure 

Implications of Fintech to central banking services (e.g., digital currency, and expanding access to and improving the resilience of payments services) and improving cross-border payments and remittance transfer systems, as well as approaches to developing robust data infrastructures that are resilient to disruptions, while addressing issues that are relevant not only to the financial sector but also to the digital economy at large (e.g., data ownership, protection, and privacy, cybersecurity, etc.).

Moderator: Ghiath Shabsigh, Assistant Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF.

Lead-off Speakers:

• Morten Bech, Head Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (TBC)
• Central Bank of Egypt, Ayman Hussein, Deputy Governor of Payment system & Business Technology
• Banque du Liban (Infrastructure for the Digital Economy)
• Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (Improving Cross-Border Payments/Digital Currency with UAE)
• Central Bank of West African States (Approaches to Regulating Fintech), Governor Tiémoko Meyliet Koné confirmed

15:30 – 16:00

Coffee Break

16:00 – 17:15             

Session 3: Legal and Institutional Frameworks

Providing an enabling legal framework with greater legal clarity and certainty regarding key aspects of Fintech activities, as well as setting up appropriate frameworks for enhanced monitoring of Fintech developments and cross-agency collaboration.

Moderator: Ross Leckow, Deputy General Counsel, Legal Department, IMF.

Lead-off Speakers:

• Bank of Central African States (Legal Framework for Digital Payments), Governor Abbas Tolli Mahamat
• Central Bank of Tunisia (Legal Framework for Digital Payments), Governor
• Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (Framework for Stored Values and Electronic Payment Systems), Governor Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori

18:00 – 20:00

Dinner

Session 4: Financial Inclusion and Development and Inclusive Growth

Fintech potential for overcoming long-standing barriers to financial inclusion and to enabling new pathways for economic and financial development (e.g., expanding access to finance, providing new ways to raise funding, enabling new ways to assess risks, spurring new businesses, etc.), while reinforcing commitment to open, free, and contestable markets to ensure a level playing field and to promote innovation, consumer choice, and access to high-quality financial services.

Moderator: Alfonso Garcia Mora, Director, Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice, World Bank.

Lead-off Speakers:

• Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Mr. Norbet Mumba, Deputy Executive Director
• Ministry of Economy of Gabon (Mobile Payments and Financial Inclusion)
• Bank of Ghana (Fintech and Financial Inclusion), Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi, Second Deputy Governor
• Central Bank of Jordan (Crowdfunding Platforms that Target SMEs), Governor Ziad Fariz 
• Bank Al-Maghrib (National Mobile Payments/Inclusion Strategy)

Session 5: Roundtable Discussion and Conclusions

Reflections on the outcome of the meeting and how Fintech issues could be integrated in national inclusion and financial and digital literacy strategies, while fostering knowledge-sharing between public- and private-sector players, civil society, and other countries and stakeholders.

Moderator: Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor, Bank Al-Maghrib

Lead-off Speakers:

Panel discussion led by sessions’ moderators making 3-5 min summaries of their sessions’ key outcomes followed by open discussion