There is also a supermarket contest to illustrate the importance of spending within your budget, plus a chef to show you how you can cook up a storm without spending a bomb. 6. There are plans to bring these activities to other parts of Singapore, and several community centres are in discussions with MoneySENSE. Important Role of Media 7. The media is still the most effective channel for financial education. In the national financial literacy survey conducted by MoneySENSE, 54% of the respondents said they were interested to learn about financial education through mass media. 8. I am glad the local newspapers have been very supportive in running MoneySENSE articles on a regular basis. The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and Berita Harian have been doing so regularly for more than two years. Other publications like Today and Smart Investor have also begun to run regular MoneySENSE columns. I would like to thank all of you for partnering us in this important effort, and I would like to see this continue. 9. MoneySENSE will soon launch a TV game show requiring participants to make financial decisions such as on whether to purchase certain items, whether to take on more credit, whether to take up insurance and whether to invest in certain financial products. A preview of this new TV game show will be staged at this Roadshow on Sunday. So look out for this sneak preview. BIS Review 30/2006  1  10. These are all good initiatives.
Another important development has been the rapid growth in the provision of Islamic Shariah compliant services to cater to the increasing demand by customers for such services. All Saudi banks offer a range of Islamic products including Murabaha, Mudaraba, Musharaka, Baie Ajel, etc. The significant growth, diversification and profitability of the Saudi banking system has been underpinned by a strong and and advanced regulatory system. Over the past two decades SAMA has introduced many modern supervisory standards compliant with international standards including risk based capital adequacy, liquidity, large exposures, risk management and others. In the past two years alone, SAMA has developed regulations relating to market risk, loan classification and provisioning, controls of consumer lending and updated the requirements for appointment in senior posts of banks. On the corporate governance front there is a heightened awareness in the world with standards emanating from OECD, Basle Committee and others. SAMA has been since the early 1980s inculcating these concepts in the Saudi Banks. In 1981, it issued a guidance document to the Directors of Saudi Banks defining the general framework of their roles and responsibilities. This was followed by regulations on Internal Controls in 1989, Prevention of Fraud (1994), Prevention of Money Laundering (1995) and the Role of the Audit Committee (1996). Furthermore, SAMA has promoted proper accounting standards to be followed by the Saudi banks in order to ensure more transparency in their financial statements. Saudi Arabia was among the first countries in 1992 to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards by the Banking Industry.