20th January 2016, Manama, Bahrain, Muscat, Oman | The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions has successfully launched its International Seminar on Risk Management and Compliance in Islamic Financial Institutions: Key Trends and Market Practices today, at Al Bustan Palace Ritz Carlton Hotel, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

International Seminar was inaugurated by a keynote address of His Excellency Hamood Sangour Al Zadjali, Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman.  The first day of the International Seminar saw an overwhelming response of attendees  from 21 jurisdictions.

The event is being held in strategic partnership with Bank Muscat - Meethaq Islamic Banking and is supported by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

Delegates were greeted by the opening remarks of Mr. Abdelilah Belatik, Secretary General of CIBAFI and Mr. Sulaiman Hamed Al Harthy, Group General Manager - Islamic Banking, Bank Muscat - Meethaq Islamic Banking. The opening panel discussed, issues on managing risk exposures in the evolving global macroeconomic and political uncertainties, examined the global and regional macroeconomic outlook for Islamic financial institutions (IFI's); contagion effect of political instabilities and the impact of oil prices on IFI's; and strategies to manage macro-risk exposures from senior risk management executives' perspectives.

The international seminar discussed among others, key agendas revealed in the CIBAFI Global Islamic Bankers' Survey (GIBS) that reflected the views of 83 Heads of Islamic banks from 35 countries.

The first session shed light on the technology risks in IFI's, including key issues, complexities, and strategies associated with them. The session delved into building an effective cyber security framework and learning from data breaches and cyber threat analytics; cyber governance, including the sophistication of cyber-attacks; and emerging issues in payments technology risks. The session also discussed best practices to implement an effective risk-data collection, standardization, and integration in practice, while tackling the challenges in building data mining capabilities and data quality in IFI's. Some of the leading practices in risk applications were shared from distinguished speakers experiences, such as stress testing, modeling, back-testing, and real-time capabilities.

The second session evaluated current and future regulatory developments, and best practices in dealing with credit quality and liquidity risk challenges. The speakers examined managing regulatory risk of Basel III, potential impacts of the proposed Basel IV on IFI's; practical insights on implementing advanced credit risk management tools; funding strategies, balance sheet management, and alternative instruments to manage liquidity risk in the current environment.

Second day is expected to kick off with a special session by Tariq Al-Rifai, the author of "Islamic Finance and the New Financial System: An Ethical Approach to Preventing Future Financial Crises". Al-Rifai will present some of the exceptional insights from the financial economy's ethical standpoint, including on why the global economy is considered vulnerable to another financial crisis that the author claims is just around the corner.

Other sessions on day-two of the international seminar will highlight challenges faced in AML and CFT functions, and examine their regulatory developments, and suggest areas of improvement, capacity building, and best practices. The seminar will conclude with discussions on emerging equity finance risks, and explore practical insights in developing capacities to manage and absorb risks in equity-based financing.

Commenting on the International Seminar, Mr. Abdelilah Belatik, Secretary General of CIBAFI said: "We are delighted to receive great support from our members, industry stakeholders and CIBAFI friends, who travelled to Oman today to speak, share experiences and participate in this event. CIBAFI is mandated to create platform for dialog, discussions and experience sharing, and we are happy in being able to deliver on it"

International Seminar has been highly supported by participation of CIBAFI members from around the world, which include Islamic banks, regulators, policy makers and professional firms.

Mr. Belatik added:"Risk management & Compliance, two interlinked elements that are on the top of the agendas for Islamic financial institutions today as revealed in the Global Islamic Bankers Survey 2015 (GIBS), are aimed to be discussed in more in-depth in this event, thus our friends policy makers, bankers, regulators and professional firms have come together to share their valuable experience and points of views.  We do hope that the considerable inputs received through this international seminar will help enhance risk perspectives among the participants in treading the future course of the Islamic financial services industry."

© Press Release 2016