Habib Attia is a senior development finance professional with more than 20 years of experience across Europe, Sub‐Saharan Africa and the Arab Region from donor, regulators, and private sector perspectives. He is currently working with the Arab Monetary Fund as a Senior Financial Sector Specialist, leading Financial Inclusion and Payment Systems streams. In this capacity, he has been managing major programs that include, among others, the design and launch of the Financial Inclusion for the Arab Region Initiative (FIARI), managing the design process of Buna payment platform, previously known as Arab Regional Payment System (ARPS), as well as the whole implementation programme and currently acting as a member of its steering committee. In addition, Mr. Attia has also co-authored numerous publications on financial system development trends including Financial Inclusion in Technology led globalization age, De-risking implications on Financial Inclusion, Correspondent Banking Relationships (CBRs) challenges, Payment Aspect for Financial Inclusion in the Arab region, among others. Prior to joining the AMF, Mr. Attia spent almost six years at the African Development Bank as a Financial Sector Advisor, laying the foundation and the development of the Making Finance Work for Africa Initiative, among many others.
Further, Mr. Attia spent four years at MicroCred Holding, a French Investment Company focused in Microfinance and SME development. As MicroCred’s Development Manager, he supported the expansion of MicroCred’s network across Africa. Before this position, Mr. Attia worked with CGAP for two years as a Policy Advisory Consultant; and held from 2000 to 2004 the position of Research Officer at the Algerian Banking Commission (Central Bank), dealing with macro-prudential supervision of Banks and Non-Banking Financial Institutions. Habib Attia holds a Master’s degree in Economic Policy Management from CERDI, University of Auvergne, France and graduated in advanced Finance and Banking studies in Algeria. In addition, he has attended Several Executive Education Programs in the United States, South Africa, Italy and France including, Rethinking Financial Inclusion Programme (Harvard) 2015, Housing Finance Executive Training programme (Cape Town University) 2014, Boulder Microfinance Programme (Colorado University – ILO) 2006, and Banking regulation and supervision (Banque de France) 2003. Mr. Attia is Fluent in French, Arabic and English.