News, Rumors and Humor Thursday Evening 3-17-2022
KTFA:
Samson: The Arab Monetary Fund holds an interactive workshop on the latest developments related to the Strategic Partnerships held by the "Bunna" Platform for Arab Payments and its orientations in the field of interdependence
17th March, 2022
The CEOs of the International Payments Corporation in India and the Jordan Payment and Clearing Systems Company ("JOPAC") will speak at the workshop
The workshop reviews the role of the "ISO 2022" standard for the messaging system in supporting the achievement of the harmonious link between payment services
The workshop will host more than 200 participants from representatives of central banks, regional and global financial and banking institutions
Thursday, March 17, 2022, the Arab Monetary Fund will hold a “remote” workshop that deals with the latest developments related to the trends of the “Bunna” platform for Arab payments, affiliated with the Regional Institution for Clearing and Settlement of Arab Payments owned by the Fund, to establish strategic partnerships aimed at achieving Harmonic interdependence with local and regional payment systems in the Arab region and global markets.
The workshop also reviews the importance of the new standard for the messaging system, "ISO 2022", in terms of supporting the harmonious interconnection between payment services
The workshop will host the CEOs of the International Payments Corporation, the international arm of the National Payments Corporation in India, and the Jordan Payments and Clearing Systems Company ("JOPAC"), the national operator of the payments system in Jordan
During their participation in this workshop, the managers of these two systems will review their approaches to cooperating with the “Bunna” platform for Arab payments to link their immediate payment services with the services of the “Bunna” platform, and secure safe and effective corridors for their participating financial institutions to send and receive payments across borders immediately
The team working at the "Bunna" platform for Arab payments will also make a presentation on the role of the "ISO 2022" standard for the correspondence system in supporting the work of interconnection and contributing to reducing the challenges facing the exchange of payments between financial institutions
More than 200 participants representing central banks, financial and banking institutions, payment services and financial services providers from the Arab region and abroad will participate in the workshop, to learn about these important and vital topics and follow up on the development of the business of the Buna platform and its future plans
On this occasion, Mr. Mahdi Manea, CEO of the Regional Institution for Arab Payments Clearing and Settlement (Bunna Platform for Arab Payments) , spoke : “The Buna Platform for Arab Payments is looking forward to playing a strategic role as a hub linking national companies providing instant payment services in the Arab region, and working on Achieving harmonious interconnection with local and regional payment systems all over the world. We are keen to spread the benefits resulting from cross-border payments services to a wide base of individuals and institutions in the Arab region and abroad
Mr. Manea added : “Buna’s platform for Arab payments adopts international standards for messaging systems and is equipped to use the “ISO 15002” and “ISO 20022” systems and secure the transfer between the two systems to facilitate the transition to the use of the “ISO 20022” system. The importance of the modern standard in terms of improving the process of sending and receiving money and linking payment services, and we are keen on the “Bunya” platform to cooperate with the institutions participating in the platform to help them use this standard
It is worth noting that the "Buna" platform constitutes an integrated system specialized in providing clearing and settlement services for payments in Arab and international currencies, aiming to enable financial and banking institutions in the Arab region and beyond, including central and commercial banks, to send and receive inter-payments throughout the Arab region and abroad in a safe, reliable, affordable and highly effective manner. Buna offers participants state-of-the-art payment solutions that comply with international standards and principles and international compliance requirements.
"Buna" contributes to enhancing opportunities for economic and financial integration in the Arab region and supporting investment links with trading partners in various continents. It is noteworthy that participation in the platform is available to all banks and financial institutions that meet the criteria and conditions for participation in it, foremost of which are the standards and procedures for compliance aspects LINK
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MarkZ Update:
No Thursday night podcast tonight. Getting settled after a long day of travel.
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Why Markets Are Breaking & How to Protect Yourself...by LYNETTE ZANG
3-17-2022
The markets are breaking down. A repeatable pattern we know is if you give bankers the task of doing something, particularly when you give them the control of it, well, there are gonna be a few at the top that win and many at the bottom that don't
I'm gonna show you what's really happening in these markets.
So let's take a look at that and how you can protect yourself, because what we're gonna about today, is the financialization of all assets.
TNT:
Tishwash: Gold reserves in Iraq's vaults are more than 96 tons
On Thursday, the Central Bank of Iraq disclosed the size of the gold reserves in Iraq, among its global ranking.
And the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Ihsan Shamran, stated, in a statement to the official agency, followed by “Nass” (March 17, 2022), that “the gold reserves in Iraq amount to 96.4 tons,” noting that “Iraq is located in the international gold reserve arrangement in sequence 37.”
It is noteworthy that the World Gold Council, last January, published its report on the reserves of the central banks in the world of gold, and the data showed that the reserves amounted to 35571.3 tons of the metal.
According to the data, total reserves increased by 11 tons in the January 2022 report, compared to December 2021.
The United States leads the world in reserves of the precious metal, followed by Germany, then Italy, then France, and then Russia, while Saudi Arabia came at the fore in the Arab countries with gold reserves, as the Kingdom owns 323.1 tons of the precious metal, according to the first report This year's World Gold Council.
Gold is a safe haven, especially in times of crisis, as many people tend to buy it to hedge against inflation risks, and in the past years, the prices of the precious metal have risen in light of the Corona virus crisis and its consequences. link
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Humor While We Wait:
A Waterford wife, Pauline, was keeping a close eye on her new neighbours. 'They seem perfectly devoted to each other,' she opined to husband, Ryan. 'He kisses her every time he goes out and even blows kisses to her from the window. Why don't you do that?' 'But, I hardly know the woman,' was Ryan's reply.
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Mary was taking a nap on Valentine’s Day afternoon. After she woke, she told her husband Paddy, “I just dreamed that you gave me a gorgeous expensive diamond necklace for Valentine’s Day! What do you think it means?” “You’ll know tonight,” he said. That evening, Paddy came home with a small package for her. Thrilled, Mary opened it and found a book titled “The Meaning of Dreams.”
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A young Roscommon boy and his father, Paddy, were visiting Liffey valley Shopping Centre for the first time. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again. The boy asked, "What's that Da?"
Paddy (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is." While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a rather heavy, not too attractive, older lady walked up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady walked between them into a small room.
The walls closed and the boy and his father watched the small circular numbers above the walls light up sequentially. They continued to watch until it reached the last number and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order.
Finally the walls opened up again and a beautiful, young woman stepped out. The father quickly turned to his young son and excitedly said "Go get your Ma"
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Paddy is sitting at home alone when he hears a knock on the front door. When he opens the door, he encounters two police, one of whom asks if he is married and, if so, whether they can see a picture of the wife.
Paddy replies "of course" and runs back to get their wedding picture. The deputy looks carefully at the picture and then gravely says, "I'm sorry sir, but it looks like your wife's been hit by a truck."
Paddy replies "I know, but she has a great personality, is an excellent cook, and lets me play golf whenever I want!"
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Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, 'Lord take pity on me.
If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!' Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Paddy looked up again and said, 'Never mind, I found one.'
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An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.
He says, 'Sir, have you been drinking?' 'Just water,' says the priest. The trooper says, 'Then why do I smell wine?' The priest looks at the bottle and says, 'Good Lord! He's done it again!'
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Patton staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy. He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Kathleen.
He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step.
As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful.
Managing not to yell, Patton sprung up, pulled down his pants, and looked in the hall mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and bleeding. He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place he saw blood.
He then hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed.
In the morning, Patton woke up with searing pain in both his head and butt and Kathleen staring at him from across the room.
She said, 'You were drunk again last night weren't you?' Patton said, 'Why you say such a mean thing?'
'Well,' Kathleen said, 'it could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly ..... it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror.