Islamic Banking

From Ahmad Farizal Abdul Hajat

COLOMBO, Nov 28 (Bernama) — Sri Lanka is now well positioned to become a producer and supplier in Islamic banking and financial professionals with the newly established Faculty of Islamic Banking and Finance, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF)’s chief executive officer Agil Natt said today.

He said the faculty was the first in the country and established as an affiliate between INCEIF and Sri Lanka-based Ceylinco Sussex Business School (CBS) to offer the Certified Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP) qualifications.

This, according to Agil, will develop the human capital needs for the Islamic financial services industry in Sri Lanka as well as those of neighbouring countries.

"The idea of establishing this faculty is to meet the needs of human capital, qualified in Islamic banking and finance, for the rapidly expanding global Islamic financial services industry," he said.

"Together with CBS, INCEIF hopes to drives the industry in Sri Lanka and help build up a meaningful pool of Islamic professionals, bankers and takaful operators with sound grounding of Syariah and corporate finance," he told Bernama after the signing of an agreement between INCEIF and CBS here.

INCEIF was represented by its chairman Dr Rozali Mohamed Ali and Agil while representing CBS were its chairman Dr Lalith Kotelawala and deputy chairman K.A.S. Jayatissa.

Bank Negara Malaysia’s deputy governor Datuk Mohd Razif Abdul Kadir and the Malaysian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Nazirah Hussain, witnessed the signing.

The agreement marked the appointment of CBS as the education provider and marketing agent for INCEIF in Sri Lanka.

The new faculty will be the latest addition of CBS, which is currently involved in producing professionals in the finance, accountancy, marketing, management and information technology fields.

Sri Lanka, with about 77 percent of its population Buddhists and Muslims constituting 8.5 percent, is one of the few non-Islamic countries to have legislations for Islamic banking.

The revised Banking Act No. 30 of 1988, amended in 2005, allows both commercial banks and specialised banks to operate on a Syariah-compliant basis.

Sri Lanka has 22 commercial banks, comprising two large state-owned banks — Bank of Ceylon and Peoples Bank — together with nine private banks and 11 foreign banks.

Their total assets as at end of July 2005 was US$11.76 billion. The two-state banks accounted for about 48 percent of the total assets while the foreign banks accounted for 14 percent.

The takaful concept in insurance is now experiencing increasing market acceptance in Sri Lanka.

The country has 13 licensed insurance companies, including a takaful operator named Amana Takaful.

According to a spokesperson for Sri Lanka’s insurance business, two of the country’s largest insurance operators have plans to offer takaful products to the market.

INCEIF was established by Bank Negara Malaysia in December 2005 to contribute towards the global development of human capital that is required to support the future growth and development of the global Islamic financial industry.

With the aim of producing high-calibre practitioners and professionals in Islamic finance as well as specialists and researchers, INCEIF has become a platform for training in this area.

– BERNAMA

By Gan Yen Kuan

Islamabad: The second World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) ended a three-day meeting here yesterday with a declaration urging Muslim countries to "promote and intensify Islamic banking, finance and insurance".

The declaration called on governments of the 57 member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to provide "fullest support" to the activities and programmes of the forum.

The governments should continue to "create a conducive environment for business, investments and economic growth through regular dialogues, consultations and smart partnerships with the private sector", it said.

The WIEF document also exhorted the governments in Islamic countries to provide an "efficient framework" to facilitate the movement of entrepreneurs, capital and trade flows between the OIC states.

Regional and sub-regional cooperation should be accelerated so that it leads to the establishment of an Islamic Free Trade Area, the declaration said.

The inaugural meeting of WIEF was held in Kuala Lumpur in October 2005 and the second Forum in Islamabad decided to hold the third session in the Malaysian capital from May 7 to 9 in 2007.

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former Australian premier Bob Hawke and former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga contributed to the deliberations.

Over the three days, hundreds of local and foreign delegates discussed a wide range of economic issues.

The Malaysian prime minister, who is also current OIC head, stressed the need for exchanging expertise and knowledge to exploit natural resources and tap potential of Muslim countries.

The former Australian premier highlighted the importance of modern education in social-economic uplift, saying it would be the best investment for the generations to come.

During the interaction, Musharraf told the delegates that religious extremism and intolerance in Muslim societies were blocking their political and economic development.

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