Labuan FSA hosts IIFM's 24th Board of Directors meeting

The 24th Board of Directors meeting of the International Islamic Financial Market's organization (IIFM) was held at the Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) offices which is one of the founding and permanent members of IIFM.

Besides Labuan FSA, the IIFM Board of Directors are represented by senior officials from the Central Bank of Bahrain, Authoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam, Bank Indonesia, Central Bank of Sudan, State Bank of Pakistan, Islamic Development Bank, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, National Bank of Kuwait, Credit Agricole CIB, Standard Chartered Saadiq, Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain, European Islamic Investment Bank and ABC Islamic Bank.

Dato' Azizan Abdul Rahman, Director General of Labuan FSA and Board member of IIFM welcomed the IIFM Board of Directors to Labuan and reiterated its strong support to IIFM's Islamic financial market unification efforts through standardization of Islamic Capital & Money Market (ICMM) products, documentation and related processes.

Mr. Khalid Hamad Abdul Rahman Hamad, Executive Director-Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Bahrain & Chairman of IIFM, thanked Labuan FSA for their hospitality and appreciated the IIFM Board of Directors for their commitment to IIFM's efforts in the standardization of documentation for liquidity management and hedging products over the past few years, which will greatly facilitate the development of the ICMM.

The Board reviewed the progress on market implementation of the Tahawwut Master Agreement (TMA) and also deliberated on the related current IIFM initiative of Islamic hedging products standardization under the TMA. The progress of IIFM's other current market initiatives such as the Master Wakalah Agreement was also discussed.

Mr. Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, Chief Executive of IIFM, briefed that as per the directives of the IIFM Board during its meeting held in December 2010 as well as in line with IIFM's comprehensive industry wide process of market standardization; the "IIFM Market Consultative Meeting on the Master Wakalah Agreement" was held on 12th June 2011 in Dubai. The meeting was very well received by the market practitioners as well as Shariah scholars and resulted in establishing the need to address various issues in the existing Wakalah arrangements in order to provide further enhancement to current practices keeping in view the Shariah requirements of such liquidity management tools.

The IIFM Board formally approved the standardization of Wakalah for the Islamic inter-bank market.Mr. Alvi stressed the need of bringing the Islamic banking institutions, regulators, Shariah scholars and other market participants on a common platform to address their needs and requirements as well as create awareness in the markets.


In this regard, the IIFM's events such as its project consultative meetings, industry seminars and workshops which have benefitted institutions in various jurisdictions. This IIFM seminars and briefings so far held in 2011 are Pakistan, Labuan (Malaysia) and Brunei on 23rd June, 5th July and 6th July respectively.

The IIFM Sukuk Report (2nd Edition) was launched at the press conference following the Board meeting. Mr. Alvi said that this report has now become an annual research feature for the industry.