Monday, 2nd December 2019, Kingdom of Bahrain – The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) organized its 10th annual seminar on the pre-conference day of the 26th World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2019) at the Gulf Convention Centre, Bahrain. The “Awareness Seminar on Islamic Finance” hosted by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) witnessed a packed audience of over 250 delegates from across the globe. The seminar, ascertained various Islamic banking activities, while coordinating with regulators and the financial sector on policy making and strategy building for the Islamic banking and finance industry.
Present were dignitaries including the IIFM Board of Directors representing the Central Bank of Bahrain, Bank Indonesia, Central Bank of Sudan, Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam, Islamic Development Bank and other senior officials from the Islamic finance industry.
A high profile line-up of speakers at the seminar not only discussed IIFM Standards but also consequent industry development initiatives. The day-long seminar deliberated on vital subjects such as the global Sukuk market and its development, ISDA/IIFM Islamic Hedging Standards, IIFM-BAFT Islamic Trade Finance Standards and global benchmark reforms.
LIBOR is the most commonly used benchmark rate in financial markets which will be phased out by January 2021 and the conventional market is already gearing up to move to alternative reference rates. The preparedness level of the Islamic finance industry to deal with this significant shift in the financial markets was discussed and it was recommended that more comprehensive deliberation should take place in the form of a specialized roundtable led by IIFM.
The aim of the event was to establish clarity in advancing sustainable development of the Islamic finance industry. The event concluded with a dialogue on the need for more standardisation of documentation.
IIFM is a global Islamic infrastructure entity that regulates trading and capital flows across the full spectrum of Shari’ah-compliant financial instruments internationally by issuing standardized Shari’ah-compliant Financial Documentation, Product Confirmations and Guidelines for the Islamic Financial Services Industry (IFSI).