By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 30 October 2021:
The Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia, Marouane El Abassi, stressed the importance of cooperation with the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) to establish a suitable work environment for investment and innovation in the field of financial technologies in both countries.
Abassi was speaking at the “Building Digital Libya” conference held in Tunis 26-28 October, organized by the Arab Organization for Communication and Information Technologies in cooperation with the General Authority for Communications and Informatics in Libya.
He pointed to the need for cooperation between the two banks and the exchange of experiences in the field of the pilot regulatory environment.
El Abbasi said that they agreed on the participation of the Central Bank of Tunisia in establishing an experimental control environment at the CBL by transferring expertise in this field and agreeing to test an application to facilitate cross-border clearing operations between central banks.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia added that it is possible to work on reviving the project of issuing Tunisian-Libyan joint credit cards and supporting its implementation in order to enhance electronic payment processes for the benefit of Tunisian and Libyan users while they are traveling between the two countries.
El Abbasi pointed out that it is also possible to work on generalizing the experience of accrediting the joint banking company for Tunisian clearing “Sibtal” as a backup platform for the “Swift” network for the benefit of Libyan commercial banks, after the success of the experiment with the CBL.
It will be recalled that Abbasi was the manager of the World Bank’s Tripoli Office before taking being appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia.