On the 5-6th June 2012, the 3rd Annual World Islamic Banking Conference: Asia Summit (WIBC Asia) was successfully held in Singapore, with the support of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank. The event attracted a large and diverse participation from financial regulators, bankers, Shariah compliant fund managers, information and service providers and lawyers, and was graced by eminent individuals such as Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al-Madani, the president of the Islamic Development Bank; and prominent Shariah scholar Sheikh Nizam Yaquby.
In his opening address, Ravi Menon, the managing director of MAS, highlighted three challenges for the Islamic finance industry to overcome: the deleveraging in the global financial system, ongoing global regulatory reforms and the need to integrate Islamic finance with the global financial system.
Of note, Menon stated that Islamic finance must “strike roots in the key international financial centres of the world”. The sessions at the conference touched on a variety of important topics such as seeking new growth areas in Asia between the Middle East and legal and risk management priorities for the global Islamic finance industry. A pre-summit session was also dedicated to the presentations and discussion on the Tahawwut Master Agreement developed by the International Islamic Financial Market and International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
The international turn-out at the conference underlies the industry wide interest and desire to see greater connectivity and cooperation between financial institutions, regulators and international standard setting agencies in the Middle East and within Southeast Asia.
Yeo Wico is a partner at Allen & Gledhill. He can be contacted at
[email protected]
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