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Saudi Central Bank to Helm the IFSB Chairmanship for 2023

Date posted: 15 December 2022

15 December 2022, Islamabad, PAKISTAN - The Council of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) today resolved to appoint its Chairman and Deputy Chairman for the year 2023. H.E. Dr. Fahad Abdallah Al-mubarak, Governor of Saudi Central Bank will take over the Chairmanship of the IFSB, while H.E. Ahmed Osman, Governor of Banque Centrale De Djibouti will be the Deputy Chairman. H.E. Dr. Fahad Abdallah Al-mubarak will take over the chairmanship of the IFSB from H.E. Jameel Ahmad, Governor of State Bank of Pakistan. The new appointments will take effect on 1 January 2023 onwards.

Brief profiles of the newly appointed Chairman and Deputy Chairperson are as follows:

H.E. Dr. Fahad Almubarak has been the Saudi Central Bank Governor since January 2021. Prior, he was a State Minister and Member of Council of Ministers from December 2018 till January 2021. At the same time, Governor Almubarak was also the Saudi G20 Sherpa between September 2018 and March 2021. 

He served as an Advisor to the Saudi Royal Court from June 2017 to December 2018 and was also the Secretary-General of G20 Saudi Secretariat from August 2017 to July 2019. 

Starting his career as an Assistant Professor at King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, Governor Almubarak has come a long way for the past 39 years to lead several top executive positions. He was the first Chairman of Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) between 2003 and 2011, the Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) from 2011 to 2016, Director of Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia from 2005 to 2011 and Member of the Shoura Council. 

In addition, he served as chairman and member in numerous private and public companies' board of directors across various fields; telecommunication, banking, investment, insurance, commerce and industry. 

H.E. Ahmed Osman Ali, Governor of the Central Bank of Djibouti since January 2013, holds a Master's Degree in Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Banking Economics obtained in France.

Before joining the Central Bank at the end of the 1980s, Governor Osman began his career in the field of tertiary education, where he, respectively, worked as a professor of economics at the high schools of Tours, at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, and at the Tours School of Management from 1985 to 1989. He acquired a long and fruitful career at the Central Bank as Controller General of Operations and Head of Mission of the on-site Banking Supervision Department from 1989 to 1997. During this period, Governor Osman led the reform of the local financial system by introducing new regulations (Statutes of the Central Bank, Banking Law, Islamic Finance, Development of Microfinance), by reorganizing and strengthening the missions of the Central Bank (supervision, AML/FT, etc.), and conducting negotiations with Bretton Woods institutions.

Since 2013, Governor Osman has championed major reforms to transform the financial system, which includes modernization of the national payment system, improvement of the credit information system, introduction of leasing, creation of a guarantee fund for financing of SMEs, forming a national sharia committee, etc.

The 41^st meeting of the IFSB Council hosted by State Bank of Pakistan was held on 15 December 2022. The Council meeting chaired by H.E. Jameel Ahmad, Governor of State Bank of Pakistan and Chairman of the IFSB for 2022, attended by the Central Bank Governors, Deputy Governors, Heads of regulatory and supervisory authorities, senior representatives from among the Council and Full members of the IFSB, representing 19 countries and Islamic Development Bank.