BRIEF HISTORY

The SAARCFINANCE was established in 1998 as a regional network of the SAARC Central Bank Governors and Finance Secretaries. Historically, its meetings take place twice a year, concurrently with the IMF/WB Annual and Spring Meetings. However, during 23rd Meeting of the Network, held in Washington D.C, U.S.A., on 25th September 2011, it was decided that the practice of holding the SAARCFINANCE Group Meeting at the time of Spring Meetings of IMF/WB shall be done away with. In place of the aforesaid meeting, the SAARCFINANCE Group Meeting shall be held within the SAARC region. Further, in the 24th SAARCFINANCE Group meeting held at Pokhara, Nepal, on 16th May, 2012, it was decided that the SAARCFINANCE member country holding the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) chair will also host the regional Group Meeting and SAARCFINANCE Governors’ Symposium back-to-back with the ACU Board of Directors’ Meeting. Accordingly, State Bank of Pakistan hosted the 26th SAARCFINANCE Group Meeting and SAARCFINANCE Governors’ Symposium back-to-back with 42nd Asian Clearing Union (ACU) Board of Directors’ Meeting at Islamabad during June 17-19, 2013.

Since its inception, the SAARCFINANCE Network has held thirty-two meetings: twenty of such meetings were held in Washington D.C. and one each in Prague (the Czech Republic), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Singapore, Istanbul (Turkey), Pokhara (Nepal), Tokyo (Japan), Islamabad (Pakistan), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Lima (Peru), and Mumbai (India)while two meetings held in Dhaka (Bangladesh).

OBJECTIVES

The primary function of the Network is to conduct a dialogue on macro-economic policies of the region and share experiences and ideas of the member countries. The Terms of Reference of the SAARCFINANCE were approved at the 11th SAARC Summit held in Kathmandu in January 2002. The Summit also accorded approval to the SAARCFINANCE as a formal SAARC body.

The 26th SAARCFINANCE Group meeting held at Islamabad on 18th June, 2013, proposed an amendment in Clause A(5) which was approved by the Thirty-fifth Session of SAARC Council of Ministers held at Maldives on 20th February, 2014. Similarly, the 28th SAARCFINANCE Group Meeting, held at Colombo on 24th July, 2014, proposed an amendment in Clause A(4) which was approved by the Thirty-sixth Session of SAARC Council of Ministers held at Kathmandu on 25th November, 2014.

ORGANIZATIONAL SET-UP
The organizational set-up of SAARCFINANCE is broadly the same as the organizational setup of its parent body of SAARC. However, unlike SAARC, SAARCFINANCE has no permanent secretariat. The Network has a rotating Secretariat to a member Central Bank along with its Chairmanship to the Governor of the Central Bank. In its 27th Group Meeting held at Washington D.C., USA on 9th October 2013, it was decided that SAARCFINANCE chair will rotate on an annual basis in an alphabetical order. Accordingly, the decision regarding shifting of SAARCFINANCE Chair will be made in the SAARCFINANCE meeting to be held during the sideline of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. As a corollary to the above decision, the SAARCFINANCE chair was shifted to State Bank of Pakistan during the 29th Group Meeting held at Washington DC, USA, on 9th October 2014..

COORDINATORS
Member Central Banks are also represented by their respective SAARCFINANCE Coordinators. They meet twice a year to facilitate the working of the Network. Twenty Three meetings of Coordinators have taken place so far. Dr. M. Ali Choudhary, Director of Research Department in State Bank of Pakistan is serving as SAARCFINANCE Coordinator for Pakistan.

The 25th SAARCFINANCE Group Meeting held at Tokyo, Japan on 14th October, 2012 agreed to appoint an Alternate SAARCFINANCE Coordinator from each member Central Bank. Similarly, the 26th Group Meeting held at Islamabad on 18th June 2013 decided to appoint one SAARCFINANCE focal point from each Ministry of Finance of the member countries.

SECRETARIAT
The Network has a rotating Secretariat, which gets shifted to the Central Bank of the country that holds its Chairmanship. The object of the Secretariat is to assist the Chairman in discharging his duties effectively. Currently, the Research Department in State Bank of Pakistan is serving as the Secretariat of the SAARCFINANCE Network.

INFORMATION SHARING
Sharing of information among the SAARCFINANCE institutions - one of the major objectives of the Network - has progressed satisfactorily. In this regard, a large number of publications and other documents on various policy issues were exchanged among the member institutions.

SEMINARS/SYMPOSIUMS/WORKSHOPS/STUDIES, ETC.
Seminars/Symposiums/Workshops/Studies are also conducted, on topical issues, by a number of member countries. State Bank of Pakistan has conducted seven seminars besides undertaking a study on “Financial Sector Assessment” in 2002 and a survey based study on “Monetary Policy Framework for SAARC Region. Further, SBP is also one of the lead central banks for the collaborative research study on “Managing Capital and Remittance Flows in SAARC Region for Safeguarding Financial Stability”, which has been presented to SAARC central bank Governors on May 27, 2016. To facilitate the collaborative researchers from SAARC Central Banks, SBP also organized the 1st meeting of collaborative researchers for the study at NIBAF, Islamabad during August 17-18, 2015. The following table provides details of the activities, including Seminars and Governors Symposium organized by State Bank of Pakistan, under the aegis of SAARCFINANCE..

SEMINARS AND GOVERNORS SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZED BY STATE BANK OF PAKISTAN

S. No.	Activit	Topic	Date	Venue
1	Seminars	Financial Sector Assessment	October 24-25, 2002	National Institute of Banking and  Finance (NIBAF), Islamabad,  Pakistan
2	-do-	Conduct of Monetary Policy and the Management of Capital Flows	August 29-31, 2005	-do-
3	-do-	SME (Small & Medium Enterprise)  Finance	November 20-22, 2006	-do-
4	-do-	Basel II Implementation in South Asia	June 26-28, 2008	-do-
5	-do-	Global Financial Crisis – Implications and  Policy  responses of SARC Countries	June 10-12,2010	-do-
6	-do-	Basel II Enhancements and Policy Response in SAARC Countries	April, 11-13, 2011	-do-
7	-do-	Monetary Policy Framework in the SAARC Region	June 14-16, 2012	-do-
8	Governors’ Symposium	Impact of EU Debt Crisis on south Asian Economies	June 18, 2013	Serena Hotel, Islamabad
9	1st Informal Discussion Forum	Senior Central Banker’s from SAARC Member Countries	June 19, 2013	-do-
10	Seminar	Risk Management Framework in Banks	March 17-19, 2014	NIBAF, Islamabad
11	Seminar	Consumer Protection in Banks: The SAARC Perspective	January 19-21, 2015	NIBAF, Islamabad
12	Seminar	Internal Audit in Central Banks: Methodologies & Practices	November 16-18, 2015	NIBAF, Islamabad
13	Seminar	Payment Systems and Correspondent Banking in the SAARC Region	May 16-18, 2016	NIBAF, Islamabad

STAFF EXCHANGE PROGRAM
An important segment of the functions of SAARCFINANCE relates with its Staff Exchange Program. The matters of the Staff Exchange covered a broad range of issues. Since inception of the Network, SAARC officials have visited various institutions of member countries under SAARCFINANCE Staff Exchange Program. As regards Pakistan, it has provided hospitalities to 51 officers (4 from Bangladesh, 2 from India, 19 from Nepal and 26 from Sri Lanka) while 8 officers from State Bank of Pakistan made outside visits (6 from Central Bank of Sri Lanka and 2 from Reserve Bank of India) under the said Program. The following table gives details of activities taken place in Pakistan under Staff Exchange Program:

SAARCFINANCE STAFF EXCHANGE PROGRAM*

Country/Institution of origin of the staff	Host Central Bank						Total
	RBI	CBSL	SBP	NRB	BB	RMA
Afghanistan
Bangladesh			4				4
Bhutan
India			2				2
Maldives
Nepal			19				19
Pakistan	2	6					8
Sri Lanka			26				26
Total	2	2	51				59

BB = Bangladesh Bank, CBSL = Central Bank of Sri Lanka, NRB = Nepal Rastra Bank,

RBI = Reserve Bank of India, RMA = Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan,

SBP = State Bank of Pakistan.