ver the weekend of October 3 and 4, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) announced that its governor, Khaled Mohamed Balama, and the governor of Bank Al-Maghrib, Abdellatif Jouahri, had signed two memoranda of understanding at its Abu Dhabi headquarters. The first covers banking supervision: exchange of prudential information on banks and financial institutions, coordination of practices and regulations, sharing of expertise and capacity building. It extends to Islamic finance, with coordination between Shariah governance bodies and the development of cross-border Shariah-compliant financing, notably for trade and infrastructure.
The second memorandum explores interlinking the two countries’ instant payment platforms, national card switches and financial messaging systems, to ease the settlement of cross-border transactions and eventually allow mutual acceptance of domestic payment cards. It also covers the exchange of expertise on central bank digital currencies, retail and wholesale, and their possible use in payments between the two countries, as well as the framework for virtual assets, crypto-assets and stablecoins included. Abdellatif Jouahri called it an important step in the partnership between the two institutions. It remains to be seen when the Moroccan card will truly pass at Emirati checkouts.
Photo: Rachidourkia, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Bank Al-Maghrib head office in Rabat.
Central Bank of the UAE, communiqué repris par Zawya - CBUAE and Bank Al-Maghrib sign two MoUs
