(with photos) NEW YORK, Sept 27 (KUNA) -- The Arab Banking Association of North America (ABANA) held a banquet to honor the Managing Director of Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) Bader Al-Saad for his achievements in financial management.
The ceremony Monday night was attended by a host of representatives of banks and financial and investment institutions, as well as economic and financial experts, businessmen, and the Ambassador of Kuwait to the US Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi.
Al-Saad told KUNA, following the banquet, that leaders should put aside their political differences and concentrate instead on their countries' economies and on job creation.
"We are facing increases in regulations of banks and financial institutions; Increases in requirements of common equity capital. These regulations were issued in haste and in reaction to high unemployment," he said addressing the gathering.
"They were done by politicians to pacify public opinion against financial institutions during and after the crises. These regulations will not create jobs. These regulations will slow down growth," he added.
"We are disappointed by politicians who are more interested in the results of the ballot boxes," he stated.
He said that "the tug and pull over raising public debt was a pain all over the world. The agreement reached by the politicians, however, was not one based on sound economic assessment and grounds and lacked adequate regard for the issue of unemployment." As to Kuwait's role in this area and the effect such concerns has on its economy, he remarked the state invests in highly developed and strongly developing markets, and is very concerned, therefore, with any depreciation in the value of currency or value of assets caused by purely political and economically-blind decisions in the concerned countries.
ABANA has been functioning, for 25 years, as the bridge and liaison between the financial sectors of North America on the one hand and the Middle East and North Africa on the other.(end) sj.lb KUNA 271205 Sep 11NNNN