Partnership for Financial Excellence

MENA Financial Regulators' Initiative

As part of the Partnership for Financial Excellence (PFE), a group of regulators from the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) have joined the United States in creating a financial regulators training initiative, to be referred to as the MENA Financial Regulators' Initiative on Bank Supervision. This initiative aims to widen the network of bank supervisors in the MENA region and the United States.

The US regulatory agencies involved in this effort include the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the U.S. Treasury Department. Countries from the region that have been actively participating in the MENA financial regulators training program include:
Other participants include the Arab Monetary Fund, the Arab Academy of Banking and Financial Sciences and the Union of Arab Banks.

The MENA Financial Regulators' Training Initaitive comes under the economic pillar of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) which is a US initiative founded to support economic, political, and educational reform efforts in the Middle East and champion opportunity for all people of the region, especially women and youth. The initiative strives to link Arab, U.S., and global private sector businesses, non-governmental organizations, civil society elements, and governments together to develop innovative policies and programs that support reform in the region. MEPI is structured in four reform areas. In the economic pillar, MEPI policy and programs support region-wide economic and employment growth driven by private sector expansion and entrepreneurship.

The MENA Financial Regulators' Initiative is guided by a Consultative Group in which all participating countries are represented. This Consultative Group has agreed upon a mission statement for the Initiative as follows:

The mission of the MENA Financial Regulators' Initiative, which falls under the Partnership for Financial Excellence, is to build a technical partnership between U.S. and Arab Banking Supervisory authorities by collaborating on training programs for staff from Central Banks and Supervisory authorities in the region to develop and enhance their know-how and technical capacities in the fields of banking supervision, anti-money laundering, and other topics of interest to supervisory authorities and related entities.

This web-site is intended to inform and update all interested parties as to the Initiative, as to key areas such as the course calendar, progress reports, and general administration information. Questions and/or comments as to this Initiative or this web-site should be addressed to the Program Manager, Mr. Robert Porter at his email address: rsjp219@aol.com.