ABG, WB form partnership in Islamic banking

Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) on Sunday announced its collaboration with the World Bank (WB) to begin a research partnership that would be beneficial to the global Islamic banking industry. The partnership's first initiative, part of a planned series of research projects, will be a study examining the risk-management challenges facing Islamic banks, with a particular focus on Musharaka and Mudaraba under the profit-and-loss-sharing system. The project will not only collect data from a number of countries where Musharaka and Mudaraba are being used in banking transactions, but the project will also examine what enabling legal and regulatory environment would be needed to support the adequate risk management of Musharaka and Mudaraba. The research's preliminary findings are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2015.