QCB strengthens resilience, inclusiveness of financial sector, reinforces supervisory capacity
<p>Doha, Qatar: Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has released its Annual Report for the year 2025, providing a comprehensive overview of the State of Qatar's monetary, financial, and institutional developments.</p> <p>The report also highlights the key achievements and QCB-led initiatives that strengthened the resilience and inclusiveness of the financial sector and further reinforced QCB's supervisory…
Doha, Qatar - The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has released its Annual Report for 2025, showcasing significant progress in enhancing the resilience, inclusiveness, and supervisory capacity of the financial sector. The report outlines several key achievements and initiatives led by the QCB.
To maintain monetary stability, the Central Bank reduced interest rates, aligning with the country's monetary policy requirements. Over the year, the QCB lowered its key policy rates by a total of 75 basis points. This reduction was immediately reflected in the average overnight interbank market rate, demonstrating effective monetary policy transmission.
The report highlights that the QCB's proactive oversight, forward-looking risk assessment, and expanded stress testing contributed to the resilience of the banking sector. Capital and liquidity buffers at Qatari banks were well above regulatory thresholds. Furthermore, official reserves increased to QAR 202.2 billion by year-end, with gold representing a larger share of the portfolio at 28.9 percent, up from 7.9 percent in 2021.
On the regulatory and supervisory front, the QCB issued multiple circulars and expanded supervisory coverage through onsite reviews and inspections. The Third Financial Sector Strategy (3FSS) saw the completion of 111 projects, with 153 QCB-led initiatives. The QCB-operated Real-Time Gross Settlement System (QA-RTGS) settled nearly 497,000 high-value transactions worth QAR 10.26 trillion.
The report also emphasizes the growth of the FinTech sector, with the number of QCB-licensed FinTech entities rising to 14. Six firms were admitted to sandbox programs, out of over 90 applications. The QCB launched the second phase of the Primary Dealers Framework and held its first auction on August 24, 2025, resulting in government bond and sukuk issuances totaling QAR 23.3 billion, with outstanding instruments reaching QAR 121.4 billion at year-end.
Additionally, the Central Bank delivered 104 specialized training programs to its employees and the broader financial sector, with 4,664 participants.
Written by urgent.news from The Peninsula Qatar Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
