Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed chaired a meeting of the board of directors of the Central Bank of the UAE at Qasr Al Watan on Monday. The Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and chairman of the central bank’s board led the meeting in Abu Dhabi at which its new organisational structure was approved, Wam reported. The new structure aims to provide greater resilience and flexibility as well as help the central bank keep pace with the latest developments and advances in the financial services sector, the state news agency said. The board also approved the appointments of Ibrahim Al Zaabi as assistant governor of the monetary policy and stability department. Sabri Al Azazi was approved as assistant governor of the banking operations department. Ahmed Al Qamzi was approved as assistant governor of the banking and insurance supervision department. Saif Al Dhaheri was approved as assistant governor for strategic affairs – financial infrastructure and digitisation department. Fatima Al Jabri was approved as assistant governor for anti-money laundering compliance, market conduct regulation and consumer protection department. The board also appointed a consortium of companies to provide an instant payment platform and implement the second phase of the National Payment Systems Strategy. It also approved the enforcement of measures to be taken against facilities that breach the central bank’s policies and instructions. At the meeting, the board also reviewed the 2020 report of the Higher Shari’ah Authority. Data released by the central bank show the UAE's transport, storage, communications construction and real estate sectors were provided with Dh44.1 billion in credit facilities last year. These sectors played a key role in ensuring a sustainable food supply chain during the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Wam reported on Monday. They also received Dh27.7bn in loans last year, 48.6 per cent up from 2019, which took the cumulative loan volume provided to these sectors to Dh85bn, as of the end of 2020. Real estate and construction platforms received AED16.4 bn in 2020, 5.3 percent up from 2019, bringing to AED328 bn the cumulative loan volume received by this sector by the end of last year.
