International Islamic Financial Market heads talks on sukuk standards

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, April 22 - International Islamic Financial Market, based in Bahrain, said it organized an industry consultative meeting on developing sukuk standards.

The meeting was hosted by Dubai International Financial Centre at its Conference Centre and was attended by regulators, shari'ah scholars, senior representatives from Islamic financial institutions, local and international law firms, accounting firms, consultants, rating agencies, multilateral development institutions and other industry representatives, according to a press release.

As sukuk issues have surged in the past few years, so has the number of different structures used to construct shari'ah-complaint sukuk, the press release noted.

For continued growth, the industry needs to take steps to bring about clearer understanding with documentation and product standards, guidelines, best business practices and transparency, while strengthening and streamlining the shari'ah approval processes, the press release said.

"There has been a clear shift towards shari'ah-compliant offerings over the last year, in line with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's initiative towards establishing Dubai as a leading Islamic economy," Chirag Shah, chief strategy and business development officer at DIFC Authority, said in the release.

"At DIFC, we continue to support the growth of the Islamic finance pipeline by creating a business environment conducive for these activities and collaborating on events, such as the IIFM consultative meeting, to encourage discourse from industry experts on the topic," Shah said.

Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, chief executive officer of International Islamic Financial Market, said that the purpose of the consultative seminar was to seek views and recommendations of experts on key issues highlighted in the concept paper presented by International Islamic Financial Market concerning various sukuk structures, particularly ijarah, mudarabah, wakalah, musharakah and convertible/exchangeable sukuk, in line with International Islamic Financial Market's comprehensive standard development process as per its mandate.

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