IslamicFinance.de

AAOIFI has issued its Governance Standard No. 8 "Central Shari’ah Board", which also marks the issuance of 100 standards so far. Standards have been issued in areas of accounting, auditing, governance, ethics as well as Shari’ah. According to Chairman Dr. Ishrat Hussain, this standard will support the regulators for establishing and operating Shari’ah boards at jurisdiction level. A survey with experts was conducted and public hearing sessions were held in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Pakistan. Although the standard encourages the creation of Central Shari’ah Boards (CSB) at national levels, the guidance provided would standardise the global regulatory practices in this respect. The standard also presents a country-level approach for regulating the Islamic Finance Industry. It provides detailed guidance on the definition, scope of work, responsibilities, appointment, composition, independence and terms of reference of a Central Shari’ah Board.

Dr Ishrat Hussain, Chairman Center of Excellence for Islamic Finance emphasized that Islamic Finance should not be restricted to a faith based segment and the banking sector has to increase investment in agriculture, SME and Islamic Microfinance. He stated that the share of Islamic Banks is 13pc growing at the rate of 28%, however, there are still regulatory and legal challenges which need to be addressed to make a real shift in lending profiles.

Institute of Business Administration (IBA) announced the establishment of the Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance at IBA. IBA has launched IBA-CEIF in collaboration with Meezan Bank and Dr Ishrat Hussain will be Chairman CEIF, while Irfan Siddiqui, CEO Meezan Bank Ltd, Hassan Bilgrami CEO BankIslami Ltd, Shafqaat Ahmed CEO Al Barkah Bank Ltd, Junaid Ahmed CEO Dubai Islamic Bank, Dr Imran Usmani, Shari'ah Advsior Meezan Bank Ltd, Samar Hasnain Executive Director, Development Finance Group State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Founding Director of CEIF, are founding members of Board of Management (BoM).

Talking to newsmen here on Friday at IBA city campus, Dr Ishrat Hussain, Chairman CEIF, said that the Center had been set-up with the objective to bridge the gap between trained human resource and industry's growing requirement. He hoped that IBA-CEIF will play a vital role for providing skilled and qualified workforce to the Islamic Banking Industry of Pakistan. On the occasion Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Founding Director of CEIF and Dr Zeeshan was also present.