Under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Adel Sharkas, Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan, ABJ held the “Jordanian Banking Summit 2023”, which brought together banking leaders in Jordan, on Saturday, February 18, 2023, at the Association’s headquarters.

Dr. Adel Sharkas affirmed that the Jordanian economy is moving towards recovery and economic reforms on several levels which enabled it to face local and regional challenges with great ability as well as respond to the current requirements with great flexibility.

Dr. Sharkas referred to the Jordanian banking system ability to deal with various developments, its growing active role in the national economy and it’s functioning according to the highest degrees of governance and good management which led to effective performance and highly positivity in the national economy.

Bassem Khalil Al-Salem, ABJ Chairman of the Board of Directors, said that this summit stems from ABJ’s keenness to organize high-level events in which banking leaders in Jordan participate in exchange of dialogue, strengthening relations and cooperation between banks and discussing various financial, banking and economic developments and their expected prospects.

The first session discussed the economic prospects for the MENA region, which was presented by the international economist and resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in Jordan, Dr. Karim Ismail, who explained that Jordan enjoys a moderate borrowing margin from international markets and a high ability to access international financial markets and financing sources at lower interest rates than many countries in the region for long terms and with high coverage rates. This reflects the confidence of investors in the stability of the Jordanian economy in the medium and long term in light of a ten-year clear vision for the Jordanian economy.

The second session dealt with the main trends affecting the regional and global banking systems and the prospects for the Jordanian banking sector, which were addressed by Mr. Christos Theofilo, Vice President and Principal Analyst of the Financial Institutions Group at Moody’s International.

The third session included a presentation on the economic model, which was presented by Dr. Nidal Al-Azzam, Executive Director of the Research Department at the Central Bank of Jordan, in which he talked about the most important local and global economic and monetary indicators and their expected prospects in 2023 and 2024. He reviewed the current economic growth rates, inflation rates and trends and global and domestic interest rates trends.

The summit concluded with a speech by the Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan, Dr. Adel Sharkas, in which he spoke about the key local economic, financial and monetary indicators and the trends of monetary policy and the banking sector in Jordan in 2023.

For his part, ABJ Director General, Dr. Maher Al-Mahrouq, indicated that the summit aims at shedding light on the main banks-related issues which helps banking leaders in building their future strategies and directions in light of local, regional and international developments.