The Finance Committee listens to the directors of the Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development and Al Baraka Bank – Al-Hiwar Algeria

Today, Sunday, the Finance and Budget Committee continued its work within the framework of studying the draft monetary and banking law, as it held a meeting chaired by Lakhdar Salmi, Chairman of the Committee.

At the outset of the meeting, the Director General of the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Development (Badr) stated that one of the most important measures that the draft law brought was to strengthen governance by re-adopting the trust system for the governor and deputy governors and reorganizing the composition of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Algeria and the Monetary and Loan Council.

In this regard, the speaker added that the project created the Financial Stability Committee and established a national payment committee, and also included the possibility of granting advances to the public treasury, along with other measures related to the possibility of the Bank of Algeria issuing a digital currency and the digitization of banking activity.

For his part, the General Manager of Al Baraka Bank explained that the draft monetary and banking law recognized for the first time the existence of Islamic banking as an effective element in the banking system, on the same level as conventional banks.

In this context, the General Manager of Al Baraka Bank added that the project enables the Bank of Algeria to adapt the tools of its intervention in the financial market with the specifics of operations related to Islamic finance and green finance, which will allow Islamic banks, when needed, to refinance from the financial market and employ the surplus liquidity between banks.

During the discussion, the deputies discussed the problems that the investor, especially the foreign investor, suffers from with banks.

Others also wondered about the possibility of eliminating this project on the parallel market and opening exchange offices, in addition to the mechanisms related to urgent liquidity and the methods of acquiring treasury bonds in addition to repaying loans.

In a related aspect, the people’s representatives inquired about the digitization of banking activity in light of a weak Internet flow and ways to protect deposited funds from hackers.