Page 111 - Annual Report 2020

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Notes to the Financial Statements as of 31 December 2020
1. Activities
The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) was established by the
State of Qatar pursuant to Law No. 7 of 2005 to attract
international financial institutions and multinational
corporations to establish business in international
banking, financial services, insurance, corporate head
office functions and related activities within Qatar.
The Qatar Financial Centre is organised into four
authorities: the QFC Authority (QFCA), the QFC
Regulatory Authority (QFC Regulatory Authority), QFC
Civil and Commercial Court (Court) and QFC Regulatory
Tribunal (Tribunal). The QFCA, the QFC Regulatory
Authority, the Court and Tribunal are independent
of each other and the Government of Qatar.
The QFC Regulatory Authority, the independent
regulatory body, regulates licenses and supervises
financial services and other firms that conduct
activities in, or from, the Qatar Financial Centre. The
registered office of the QFC Regulatory Authority is
located at P.O. Box 22989, Doha, State of Qatar.
These financial statements only relate to the
income, expenses, assets and liabilities of the
QFC Regulatory Authority and do not extend
to include any other bodies of the QFC.
The financial statements of the QFC Regulatory
Authority as of 31 December 2020 were authorised for
issue by the Board of Directors on 30 March 2021.
2. Economic dependency
The QFC Regulatory Authority is dependent on
appropriations from the Government of the State of
Qatar to fund its operating and capital expenditure.
During the year, the Government provided the QFC
Regulatory Authority with appropriations amounting to
USD 35,327 thousand (2019: USD 37,651 thousand),
including appropriations received in advance USD
1,137 thousand (2019: USD 2,615 thousand).
After adjusting for the movement in appropriations
received in advance and appropriations receivable
of USD 4,805 thousand (2019: USD 3,964), USD
37,647 thousand was recognised in the statement
of comprehensive income for the year ended 31
December 2020 (2019: USD 39,082 thousand).
As per Article 14 of Qatar Financial Centre Law No.
7 of 2005, the QFC Regulatory Authority has the
right to retain any excess appropriations provided
by the Government; these appropriations have
been treated as part of retained surplus.
There was a transfer of USD 2,000 thousands to
general reserve from retained surplus during the
year (2019: USD Nil), noting that any transfer of
amounts to and from the general reserve requires
the approval of the Board of Directors.
QF CR A ANNU AL REP OR T 2020
3. Basis of preparation and significant accounting policies
3.1 Basis of preparation 3.2 Changes in accounting
policies and disclosures
Statement of compliance
The accounting policies adopted are consistent
The financial statements have been prepared in with those of the previous financial year, except
accordance with International Financial Reporting for the following new and amended IFRS recently
Standards (“IFRS”) issued by the International issued by the IASB and International Financial
Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) and the applicable Reporting Interpretations Committee (“IFRIC”)
provisions of Qatar Financial Centre Law No. 7 of 2005. interpretations effective as of January 1, 2020.
The financial statements have been
prepared on the historical cost basis. 3.2.1 New and amended IFRS Standards
that are effective for the current year
The functional currency of the QFC Regulatory
Authority is Qatari Riyals (“QAR”). However, these The following new and revised IFRSs, which
financial statements have been presented in became effective for annual periods beginning
United States Dollars (“USD”), which is the QFC on or after January 1, 2020, have been adopted
Regulatory Authority’s presentation currency as QFC in these financial statements.
Regulatory Authority was established to authorise and
regulate firms and individuals conducting financial
services in or from the Qatar Financial Centre.
As the Qatari Riyal is pegged to the USD, the balances
and transactions in Qatari Riyals have been translated
to USD at the fixed exchange rate of 3.645 Qatari Riyals
to USD and all financial information presented in USD
has been rounded to the nearest thousand USD.
T ABLE OF C ONTENT S