If King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud’s dismissal of religious hard-liners from the Saudi Arabian cabinet and appointment of the country’s first female deputy minister signal positive social change, the choice of Muhammad Al-Jasser as central bank governor suggests that the status quo will prevail in monetary, banking and investment policy. The kingdom has weathered the global financial storm well, thanks to limits on the number of Saudi banks and controls on their reserves, and to the decision to conservatively invest 85 percent of the country’s oil revenue in U.S. Treasuries. Al-Jasser, 54, has been vice governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency since 1995 and replaces Hamad Al Sayari, 68, who was governor for 25 years. Armed with a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Riverside, Al-Jasser was Saudi Arabia’s executive director at the IMF before becoming vice governor and de facto spokesman for SAMA. He has been credited with making the central bank more transparent with respect to both strategy and priorities. “Al-Jasser’s appointment trumpets sound policy,” says Fahad Almubarak, Riyadh-based chairman of Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia. “More of the same in this case is a good thing.”
