H.E. Mr. Wissam H. Fattouh

Biography

A career development, Mr. Wissam H. FATTOUH became the Secretary General of the Union of Arab Banks in November 2010. As such, he leads the largest banking consortium in the region and the sole representative of the Arab banking community, which aims at the development and advancement of the banking and financial markets, in addition to the cross-border relations and exchange of expertise with international counterparts.

Mr. Fattouh has excellent knowledge and expertise in Arab and International banking and financial sectors, acquired from over 25 years of experience in this domain, and through extensive and close relations with MENA Region, Europe and United States of America, in addition to regional/ International financial and regulatory bodies. His remarkable contact portfolio with Heads of States, officials, ministers, politicians, Governors and regulators, and excellent liaison with banks and financial institutions’ chairmen, CEOs and heads through years of direct and careful relations acted as the vote of confidence for his evident rise to this position.

Before his current position, Mr. Fattouh served as the Acting Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, Director of Conferences Department at UAB and Manager of Databank and Information Technology. He gained a worldwide network of communication and Economic Knowledge through innovatively organizing and supervising international, regional and local Conferences and awareness Seminars on banking and financial matters in cooperation with the likes of the US Department of the Treasury, World Bank, IMF, IFC, FATF, United Nation Security Council, European Banking Federations and various international governmental offices.

He established the new line of technical Forums that excelled for its scientific importance and established a number of Professional Groups and Associations, Group of Certified Compliance Officers (GCCO) in MENA Region, Group of Certified Risk Managers (GCRM), MENA Financial Crime Compliance Group (MENAFCCG) in addition to 2 main initiatives for Private Sector Dialogue (PSD): US-MENA PSD and EU-MENA PSD, it is a dialogue between Arab Banking community and its counterparts from European Union and United States. The EU-Arab and US-Arab banking dialogue initiatives cover matters of laws and regulations, correspondent banking and investment including AML/CFT, Basel recommendations, FATCA law, CSR, De-risking, Correspondent banking and others.

Through his suave yet professional persona backed with years of expertise and an eye for the future, Mr. Fattouh has managed to raise funds on continuous basis to get the UAB to the highest standard of professionalism while using advanced technologies and relying on the best human resources. He managed to transform the UAB into an internationally renowned organization with a say on the international banking and financial fronts.

Mr. Fattouh was born in Beirut in September 1965. Married with two children and is a graduate from the Lebanese American University in Beirut class of 1989 and MBA, London 2016. He is fluent in Arabic, English and a good commend of the French language.