{
  "id": 2115022,
  "title": "QCB strengthens resilience, inclusiveness of financial sector, reinforces supervisory capacity",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/qcb-strengthens-resilience-inclusiveness-of-financial-sector",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-20T10:20:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Gulf Times Business",
    "slug": "gulf-times-business",
    "url": "https://www.gulf-times.com/article/731473/business/qcb-strengthens-resilience-inclusiveness-of-financial-sector-reinforces-supervisory-capacity"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has released its Annual Report for 2025, detailing the country's monetary, financial, and institutional progress. Throughout the year, the QCB focused on bolstering the financial sector's resilience and inclusiveness while enhancing its supervisory and regulatory capacities. Some of the report's highlights include maintaining confidence in the peg, reducing interest rates in alignment with monetary policy and the Qatari economy, and preserving monetary stability.\n\nThe Central Bank achieved this by cutting its key policy rates by a combined 75 basis points, with these reductions reverberating fully and promptly across the overnight interbank market rate. Furthermore, the QCB demonstrated its commitment to safeguarding financial stability through its proactive oversight, forward-looking risk assessment, and expanded stress testing. As a result, the banking sector remained robust, with capital and liquidity buffers surpassing regulatory benchmarks.\n\nThe report also highlighted the steady growth of the country's external buffers, with official reserves reaching QAR 202.2 billion at the year's end. Notably, the gold portfolio expanded from 7.9 percent in 2021 to 28.9 percent in 2025. Additionally, the reserve coverage of currency issued increased to 995.4 percent. In terms of regulatory and supervisory framework, the QCB issued a range of circulars and expanded its supervision through 15 onsite summary reviews across all eight Qatari national banks, employing a new risk-based methodology. The Third Financial Sector Strategy (3FSS) resulted in 153 QCB-led projects, with 111 projects successfully completed and achieved during the strategy's third consecutive year of execution.\n\nThe QCB-operated Real-Time Gross Settlement System (QA-RTGS) processed nearly 497,000 high-value transactions worth QAR 10.26 trillion. Additionally, the QCB enhanced its system by introducing a foreign currency transfer service, allowing banks to settle and transfer US dollar transactions locally through accounts with the QCB. The report also emphasized the QCB's advancements in FinTech development, with licensed FinTech entities growing to 14 and the publication of 10 key regulations under the FinTech Strategy. Sandbox programs received over 90 applications, admitting six firms across the regulatory and express streams. Lastly, the QCB launched the second phase of the Primary Dealers Framework, holding its first auction on August 24, 2025. Government bond and sukuk issuance totaled QAR 23.3 billion in the year, with outstanding instruments valued at QAR 121.4 billion at the end of 2025.",
  "summary": "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.The repor...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Peninsula Qatar Business",
        "title": "QCB strengthens resilience, inclusiveness of financial sector, reinforces supervisory capacity",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/qcb-strengthens-resilience-inclusiveness-of-financial-sector-2115762",
        "published": "2026-08-20T10:19:17.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}