The Banking Executive Issue - October 2025 Issue

2025 IMF–World Bank Meetings • Increase focus on operational re- silience and cyber risk as digitali- zation accelerates. On capital flows, higher-for-longer global rates and elevated debt levels will keep investors discriminating. Countries that combine credible fis- cal paths, reform momentum and clear digital/green strategies—several GCC and reform-oriented MENA economies among them—stand to attract more stable, long-term capi- tal. THE ROLE OF MULTILATERAL INSTITUTIONS OVER THE NEXT 12–24 MONTHS Over the coming two years, the IMF and World Bank will be looked at less by communiqués than by deliv- ery. For the IMF, success will mean oper- ationalizing its AI and climate work into concrete policy advice and pro- gram design; making the Global Sov- ereign Debt Roundtable more effective; and ensuring that facilities like the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and Resilience and Sus- tainability Trust are adequately re- sourced for the next shock. For the World Bank Group, the test will be whether its reformed processes and expanded financial capacity translate into faster, larger and more catalytic operations—es- pecially in fragile and conflict-af- fected states, and in climate-sensitive sectors across MENA and Africa. For Arab regional institutions, the op- portunity is to move from supporting actors to system shapers—aligning their own strategies with the evolving global agenda and ensuring that Arab perspectives on debt, climate, digital transformation and recon- struction are embedded in multilat- eral decision-making. CONCLUSION If the 2023 Marrakech meetings were about stabilization after overlapping shocks, Washington 2025 felt like the opening chapter of a new phase: one in which AI, climate, debt and geopolitics will redefine what “stabil- ity” even means. For Arab banks, regulators and policymakers, the task now is to translate the week’s dense communiqués and speeches into concrete strategies—recalibrating risk, seizing new opportunities in trade and technology, and insisting that the next iteration of the global fi- nancial architecture gives their economies the voice and tools they need to thrive. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 54 ISSUE 202 OCTOBER 2025