TUNISIA – Board of Directors of Société Tunisienne de Banque, a financial service provider, has appointed Mohamed Chouikha as the new Managing Director.
Mohamed Chouikha replaces Ms. Néjia Gharbi, who had a short stint as CEO after the departure of Mr. Lotfi Debbabi in early September 2020.
The new Director General, Mohamed Chouikha is known as a clerk of the State having made most of his career as chief of staff of the ministers of finance and health, in charge of mission at the high administrative and financial control committee (HCCAF).
He has also worked as the Director General of Investments at the Ministry of Finance where he was responsible for designing the model for the recapitalization of public banks, the implementation of their new modes of governance and the development of their business plans.
A specialist in financial control, auditing and project management, Mohamed Chouikha has actively participated throughout his professional career in several funding missions for national programs and projects with international financial institutions.
The new head of the Société Tunisienne de Banque holds a master’s degree in management, economics and international relations, a higher cycle diploma from the National School of Administration – Control frameworks – and accredited with the PMP certificate (Project Management Institute Certificate). He is 55 years old, married and the father of two children.
Meanwhile, STB has become the first Tunisian bank to join the Dinar Digital network under “Central Bank of Tunisia Digital Currency” project.
The network brings together member financial institutions, with the aim of using blockchain technology to fully digitalise the country’s fiat money (cash). The BCT Digital Currency project hopes to also improve efficiency and reduce the costs of financial transactions for Tunisians.
Société Tunisienne de Banques is doing this under the country’s regulatory sandbox licensing regime. Other banks, after STB, will most likely join the network. The Digital Dinar network consists of an interoperable network of money transfer and payments.
In 2020, the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) launched a “regulatory sandbox” licensing regime which, among other things, aims to test technological innovations in the banking and financial sector.
“The Sandbox is an opportunity for dozens of fintech companies to test their technological solutions and understand the regulatory requirements in force, in order to promote a financial services’ offer adapted to the needs of the market,” Minister of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy Anouar Maarouf said in 2020.
Once STB concludes its tests as part of the BCT sandbox, the new digital payment infrastructure will be set up in Tunisia. The blockchain-powered payment infrastructure will offer Tunisian citizens and financial institutions a complementary solution to the already existing payment networks, namely electronic banking, transfers and checks.
