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‘Islamic finance industry needs regulation’

Islamic financial institutions are often criticised for the lack of well-defined regulatory, accounting and Islamic Sharia law standards, mainly because of different and sometimes conflicting interpretation of Islamic texts and because the industry is still new.

Striving to preserve its unique identity as an ethical industry, Islamic finance has been adopting a highly conservative and cautious approach while pondering entry into new areas of investment, services and products. “Islamic banks have so far been cautious. We want them to become more aggressive ... We have plenty of investment opportunities in our countries,” said Shaikh Nizam Yacouby, who sits on the Sharia (Islamic law) boards of several Islamic banks and institutions.

“We should not remain at a standstill, he told AFP. “We must develop ourselves within Sharia framework ... Like anything human, Islamic banking needs to be revised.”

Yacouby was one of 60 speakers who addressed the three-day International Islamic Finance Forum in Istanbul, which ended on Wednesday.

Launched three decades ago with the simple idea of investing Muslim savings in instruments compliant with Sharia laws, the Islamic finance industry today offers a wide variety of products and services, some large-scale.

“We are limited only by our imagination in bringing up new Islamic financial solutions,” Ziad Makkawi, CEO, Dubai Bank, told the forum. “There is a historical opportunity to develop the Sharia-compliant industry.

“The biggest hurdle is scarcity of scholars and (Sharia) boards. We need to institutionalise the rulings, the standards and fatwas (religious edicts),” Makkawi said.

Taha el-Tayeb, head of Islamic Banking at Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, said so far some 22 Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) have been issued for Islamic finance but more are needed.

“The problem is that every standard must involve Sharia, accounting and banking considerations and must be approved by Sharia boards,” Tayeb told AFP.

Islamic financial institutions have set up the Auditing and Accounting Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), which has an 18-member Sharia Board, and other banking and accounting councils.

“Monitoring and regulation have been upgraded following the September 11 attacks ... but we still need standards for new products like Tawarruq (securitisation) and Sukuk (bonds),” Tayeb added. There are no fixed-interest deposit accounts in Islamic finance but investment accounts based on profit-and-loss-sharing concept. Investment in what Islam considers vices, such as dealing in alcohol, pork or gambling, is forbidden.

Islamic banks do not provide direct consumer loans to customers, but adopt small-scale Murabaha to buy items like cars, furniture and houses and get a higher price in instalments, and Tawarruq for large-scale finance.

To cope with ever-increasing demands for the latter, Islamic financial institutions have introduced Sukuk, the Sharia-compliant Islamic bonds which do not have a fixed yield.