QIB sponsors the 4th Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) Summit for the 3rd consecutive time

Central bank governors, chairmen and executive managers from Islamic banks, in addition to a number of experts in Islamic banking participated in the summit.

QIB took part with a high-level delegation headed by QIB's Managing Director and Chairman of the Asian Finance Bank Mr. Abdullatif Abdullah Al Mahmoud, QIB CEO Mr. Salah Al Jaidah, Asian Finance Bank CEO Mr. Faisal Al Showaikh, Arab Finance House GM Mr. Fouad Matraji, Investment Banking & Development Group GM Mr. J.M. Riegel, and Risk Group GM Mr. Abul Rahman Mustafa Salem.

In a declaration made on this occasion, Mr. Al Jaidah emphasized the importance of IFSB as an umbrella that supports Islamic banks, especially in terms of consolidating relations with central banks, as regulatory bodies, and Islamic banks.
IFSB succeeded in mobilizing distinctive expertise that would play a positive role in the support and development of Islamic banking, he said.

In the opening session, UAE Central Bank Governor H.E. Mr. Sultan Bin Nasser Al Sowaidi stated that IFSB, established in 2002 in Kuala-Lumpur, has acquired a significant importance due to the promising capabilities standing behind the concept of its establishment. IFSB is in fact offering solutions radically different than those offered by the conventional financial services system, a solution that fulfills the needs of a wide sector of people worldwide, he noted.

Mr. Al Sowaidi mentioned further that Islamic banking is now spread over a span of 14,750 Km. wide, from Indonesia in the East, up to Sudan in the West, serving a population of around 820 million.

The success of IFSB can be appraised also through the rate of increase of its membership, continued Mr. Al Sowaidi while confirming the need to put an extra effort to overcome the obstacles for further progress. Such tools should be in the form of more Shari'a-compatible financial tools, fit for solving the short-term liquidity problem in Islamic banks.

A more transparent method for segregating between dividend and investors' (or depositors') profit share is needed as well as the realization of more harmony between the Fatwas/resolutions issued by Islamic banks' Shari'a Boards on their operations and their financial products.

Mr. Al Sowaidi concluded stressing on the need to coordinate efforts for the sake of creating an environment that permits more cooperation between our banks and to improve the efficiency of our financial infra-structure arrangements at state levels, in order to allow for capital flows to our countries.

Also in the opening session, IFSB Secretary General Prof. Rifaat A. Abdul Karim qualified the need to coordinate efforts among banking, investment, insurance, and financial papers' sectors as important for the achievement of global financial stability.

He mentioned that the establishments offering Islamic financial services are vested with an increasing importance and are swiftly becoming basic constituents of the global financial system.

However, he noted that the council has been commissioned to devise hedging structures for both types of establishments working in an Islamic financing industry; those adopting Shari'a-compatible activities, and those that practice Islamic financing without legal, financial or administrative segregation.

This commissioning has been lately supported by the adherence of the regulatory authorities controlling financial papers and insurance markets, as full IFSB members, concluded Prof. Abdul Karim before giving a detailed breakdown of IFSB's present membership.