The European Central Bank and the Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) are conducting a joint study on policies affecting Islamic finance in Europe, the IFSB's top official told Reuters.
"We are doing a joint study with Europe's central bank which brings together European scholars and regulators to examine a broad set of policy and regulatory issues in relation to Islamic finance in Europe," said IFSB secretary-general Jaseem Ahmed.
The soon to be introduced Islamic Financial Service Act 2012 (IFSA 2012) will make Malaysia one of the few countries in the world where the Islamic regulator is given a mandate to promote Shariah compliance among Islamic financial institutions, said a former senior official of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
The implementation of the Malaysian-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) rules and regulation among central banks should be made mandatory to bring the industry to the next level, said Bahrain Central Bank executive director Khalid Hamad. He said mandatory rules and regulation would help the industry to grow better and avoid disagreement on syariah adherence.
“If you want any industry to grow, you need proper rules and regulations, proper standards be it accounting, practice or prudential and skilled resources,” he told reporters here yesterday.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate international cooperation between the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in promoting the development of Islamic finance in common developing member countries was signed today at the ADB headquarters in Manila.
A new report by the Islamic Finance Council UK (IFC), a not-for-profit promotional body and the Malaysia-based International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), highlights the glaring gap in external Shari’ah audit practice.
Shari’ah audit practices continue to remain an opaque area with varied practices. Recent very public challenges on the Shari’ah authenticity of certain Sukuk structures, exemplify the need to readdress the Shari’ah assurance, governance and certification process. The report highlights a set of considerations directed to Shari’ah scholars, financial institutions, Shari’ah consultancy firms, standard setting bodies and regulators.
Central banks from seven Muslim countries yesterday launched a regulatory body to oversee the booming Islamic investment market. The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) was inaugurated here by founding members Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Pakistan, Sudan and the Islamic Development Bank.
Members of the governing council of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), the prudential and supervisory standard setting body for the global Islamic financial industry, and delegates have started converging here for the two-day board’s 9th annual summit starting Wednesday.
Central Bank of Turkey is hosting the event for the first time.
The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has published new guidelines on liquidity and stress testing, seeking to reduce the balance sheet risk of Islamic financial institutions in line with a tightening of standards in conventional banking.
The guidelines are the first published by the Malaysia-based body, which sets global standards for Islamic finance, since December 2010. The guidelines are not mandatory it is up to national regulators to decide whether to adopt them but the IFSB said it expected regulators to begin using them in 2013.
Rapid growth of Islamic finance is increasing pressure for the industry to enter the accounting mainstream, by seeking guidance from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the global body which sets the tone for book-keeping in conventional finance.
It would be a controversial move - by basing itself on religious principles, Islamic finance seeks to set itself apart from conventional finance. But some experts think the industry is becoming so big that it can no longer sit comfortably outside a trend towards harmonizing accounting rules across the world.
London and Luxembourg are engaged in a friendly “battle of the listings domicile” especially for sukuk and Islamic investment funds, and its seems that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) currently has the upper hand on its counterpart in the Duchy, Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
In a short and simple announcement on June 1, the London Stock Exchange welcomed "the listing of another two sukuk bringing the total number of sukuk which have listed on the exchange to 33 and the total money raised to $19.4 billion." The two latest listings coup include the IDB Trust Services Ltd.’s $750 million Trust Certificates, and the SIB Sukuk Company II Ltd.'s $400 million Trust Certificates which are due on May 25, 2016.
RSS Feed