Chairperson and managing director of Suez Canal Bank, Hussein El-Refaie, stressed the importance of applying the governance standards in the banking system, to protect the both shareholders’ and depositors’ rights.
His remarks were made during his chairmanship of Green Banking, the road to Sustainable Development Organized by the Union of Arab Banks in Hurghada under the auspices of the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Tarek Amer.
He added that the concept of governance and the application of its standards have increased during the past periods, in order to protect the rights of shareholders and depositors through establishing rules and regulations to manage institutional assets and investments so as to ensure continuity in its work performance.
El-Refaie pointed out that selecting directors and senior executive positions, including heads of risk management, internal control, compliance and compliance sectors, is subject to objective provision of the required competencies and expertise as the most important elements of governance.
Implementation of governance methods by financial and banking institutions is of great importance, due to their vital role in finance provision, which requires an executive management with vision, a variety of experience and awareness of professional risk management, he explained.
He further added, that it is important to implement, and set policies that ensure transparency, and disclosure, especially, when dealing with regulatory bodies such as the CBE and the Financial Regulatory Authority, as well as other parties represented by auditors, shareholders, and depositors.
El-Refaie mentioned a set of controls for non-executive board members, which should be taken into consideration to implement governance, including avoiding conflicts of interest, issuing more transparent reports, paying attention to training and development of human resources.
