Sultan bin Nasser al-Suweidi, governor of the Central Bank of the UAE, has called for greater coordination and regulatory partnerships among the region’s banking sectors to ensure sustained growth going forward.

Al-Suweidi said the implementation of similar banking laws and regulations would be important in providing the sector with a strong foundation for future success.

“It will also make regulators realise the importance of regional cooperation and coordination, which hopefully will lead, at one stage in the future, to enabling cross-border branching of banks and other financial institutions,” said al-Suweidi on 24 May.

He added that in formulating a new banking regulatory system, countries should consider adopting a mix of internationally set standards and nationally devised regulations.

Al-Suweidi said he thought it was likely that banking regulations will be amended in the coming few months, before adding: “I believe the smaller economy countries will steer their banking system towards lowering the growth rate of loans and advances plus investments versus stable deposits.”

The governor also said he expected regulators to put some type of filters on inward investment flows “to prevent hot money or huge inflows followed by quick outflow of funds”.