Haitham al-Battashi

The Central Bank of Oman, the nation’s central bank, is responsible for promoting and maintaining monetary and financial stability in the Sultanate of Oman, as well as for fostering a sound and progressive banking and financial system in the country conducive to its sustained economic growth. Monetary stability means stable prices and confidence in the currency. Financial stability entails detecting and reducing threats to the financial system as a whole. ​CBO is also the single integrated regulator of the banking and financial services sector in the country. ​In order to achieve the above purposes, CBO performs various functions as follows, as mandated by Banking Laws 1974 and its subsequent amendments. ​-​Formulates and administers monetary policy to achieve a variety of goals including stable prices, growth and employment. ​-​Licenses, regulates and supervises commercial banks, specialized banks, financial and leasing companies and money exchange companies. ​-​It acts as a banker to the Government – It provides a full range of banking services for the Government, such as acceptance of deposits from the Government, lending to the Government to help finance the fiscal deficits, running the Government bank account acting as its fiscal agent, public debt management, exchange control, and management of foreign exchange reserves of the country. ​-​​It acts as a banker to the Banks – holds deposits from the banks operating in the Sultanate of Oman, lends them funds for short periods, and provides them a variety of other services including payment system, settlement, and clearing facilities. ​-​Issues national currency and manages the liquidity in the banking system.