G20 Presidency initiates hackathon-style competition for regulatory technologies

The G20 Presidency and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, on Wednesday began a competition to find the best technological solution to financial regulatory and supervision issues.
Saudi Arabia, which currently holds the G20 rotating presidency and the BIS Innovation Hub have published operational regulatory and supervisory technology problems and invited firms to develop ways of solving them, the G20 said in a statement.

The hackathon-style competition, known as the G20 TechSprint initative, offers cash prizes and is supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), API Exchange (APIX), and the RegTech for Regulators Accelerator.

The “problem statements” developed from submissions received from FSB member jurisdictions identify challenges in regulatory reporting, analytics, and monitoring and supervision, it said.

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“Alongside the BIS Innovation Hub, we look to the global FinTech community to help mobilise effective solutions to pressing financial regulatory and supervisory challenges, including by supporting regulatory and supervisory responses against the Covid-19 pandemic,” the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, Ahmed Alkholifey, said.

“The G20 TechSprint Initiative will support the efforts of supervisors and regulators in reaping the benefits of technology to ensure that the global financial system continues to support households and businesses.”

Selected participants will be invited to present their proposals in a virtual TechSprint Touchpoint workshop in July this year. An independent panel of experts will shortlist firms and identify the most promising solutions. Winners will receive prizes of $50,000 (Dh183,500) from the Saudi G20 Presidency for every problem solved.

TechSprint is taking place against the backdrop of the global pandemic that has shattered global trade and tipped the world economy into its deepest recession since the 1930s Great Depression. The International Monetary Fund forecasts global output will contract 3 per cent in 2020.

“The initiative recognises that, notwithstanding the unprecedented challenges presented by the virus, financial regulators and supervisors will continue to ensure that the global financial system operates in a stable, efficient and inclusive manner,” according to the G20 statement.

“It also recognises that regulators and supervisors require the tools to identify vulnerabilities and share information domestically and across borders in real time. Competitors are encouraged to develop solutions that will support this process,” it noted.

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Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.	United States
2.	China
3.	UAE
4.	Japan
5	Norway
6.	Canada
7.	Singapore
8.	Australia
9.	Saudi Arabia
10.	South Korea

Takreem Awards winners 2021

Corporate Leadership: Carl Bistany (Lebanon)

Cultural Excellence: Hoor Al Qasimi (UAE)

Environmental Development and Sustainability: Bkerzay (Lebanon)

Environmental Development and Sustainability: Raya Ani (Iraq)

Humanitarian and Civic Services: Women’s Programs Association (Lebanon)

Humanitarian and Civic Services: Osamah Al Thini (Libya)

Excellence in Education: World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) (Qatar)

Outstanding Arab Woman: Balghis Badri (Sudan)

Scientific and Technological Achievement: Mohamed Slim Alouini (KSA)

Young Entrepreneur: Omar Itani (Lebanon)

Lifetime Achievement: Suad Al Amiry (Palestine)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

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The finalists

Player of the Century, 2001-2020: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Ronaldinho

Coach of the Century, 2001-2020: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Jose Mourinho (Tottenham Hotspur), Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid), Sir Alex Ferguson

Club of the Century, 2001-2020: Al Ahly (Egypt), Bayern Munich (Germany), Barcelona (Spain), Real Madrid (Spain)

Player of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

Club of the Year: Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Real Madrid

Coach of the Year: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta), Hans-Dieter Flick (Bayern Munich), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)

Agent of the Century, 2001-2020: Giovanni Branchini, Jorge Mendes, Mino Raiola

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.