Manama: Khalid Humaidan, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), participated in a high-level panel discussion titled "Policymakers' Dialogue: Building Trust, Stability and Innovation in the Next Era of Money," during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025.
According to Bahrain News Agency, Jos© Luis Escriv¡, Governor of the Bank of Spain, and Boris Vujcic, Governor of the Croatian National Bank, also participated in the discussion. Humaidan emphasised the need for regulators to invest in digital tools to enhance the safety of financial services and highlighted the importance of commercial banks investing in Fintech as new technologies reshape the financial landscape. He stressed that monitoring and addressing systemic risk remains a key regulatory priority.
Humaidan further noted the importance of adopting digital tools to keep up with the fast growth of digital products and market innovation. He mentioned that Supervisory Technology (SupTech) will enable regulators to balance their prudential mandate with innovation more effectively.
Discussing the role of commercial banks in the evolving digital assets landscape, Humaidan observed that banks, non-banks, and FinTechs are increasingly competing with traditional commercial banking services. He assured that CBB, as a regulator, will ensure consistent regulatory treatment for all players in the sector.
Humaidan underscored that managing systemic risk remains CBB's top regulatory priority, given that the financial sector is the largest contributor to Bahrain's economy, a crucial source of foreign direct investment, and a significant driver of job creation in the Kingdom.