4th IFSB Islamic Financial Services Forum: The European Challenge to be hosted by Banca D’Italia

4^th IFSB Islamic Financial Services Forum: The European Challenge to be hosted by Banca D’Italia

Kuala Lumpur, 5 March 2013 – The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) is pleased to announce that it will be organising the 4^th Islamic Financial Services Forum: The European Challenge on 9 April 2013 in Rome, Italy. Banca D’Italia is kindly hosting the Forum.

The Forums have received strong support, especially in terms of attendance and the participation of a number of central banks’ governors, key regulators, market players and opinion leaders of the European financial community.

This fourth edition of the Forum series will bring together senior financial sector supervisors, market players, and experts from international financial institutions to discuss the following issues and challenges that Europe may face in exploring the opportunities arising from the development of its Islamic financial services industry, especially in light of the changes of the past two years. The Forum’s discussions will cover, among others, the following topics:

• Overview of the Islamic Financial Landscape: Globally and in Europe
• Assessing the Legal, Regulatory and Institutional Challenges in Light of Developments in Europe
• Sukūk in Europe: Response to a Changing Financial Environment
• Panel Discussion on Islamic Finance in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities in the Current Financial Climate.

The confirmed speakers and chairpersons for the Forum include:

1. H.E. Ignazio Visco, Governor, Banca D’Italia
2. H.E. Sheikh Abdulla Saoud Al-Thani, Governor, Qatar Central Bank and Chairman of the Council of the Islamic Financial Services Board
3. Mr. Jaseem Ahmed, Secretary-General, Islamic Financial Services Board
4. Ms. Maria Cannata Bonfrate, Director General of the Directorate II – Public Debt, Department of the Treasury, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Italy
5. Dr. Ibrahim Turhan, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer , Istanbul Stock Exchange, Turkey
6. Mr. Giorgio Gomel, International Economic Analysis and Relations Department, Banca d’Italia
7. Dr. Filippo di Mauro, Senior Adviser – Research, European Central Bank
8. Mr. Richard Thomas OBE, UK Islamic Finance Secretariat (UKIFS) and Chief Executive Officer, Gatehouse Bank, UK
9. Dr. Manfred J. Dirrheimer, Chairman of the Executive Board, FWU Group, Germany
10. Ms. Baljeet Kaur Grewal, Managing Director and Vice Chairman, KFH Research Limited, Malaysia
11. Mr. Hamid Younis, Partner, Taylor Wessing, UK
12. Mr. Roni Hamaui, Chief Executive Officer, Mediofactoring, Intesa San Paolo, Italy

The IFSB Forums, which are held in prominent financial centres in Europe, are organised in response to the increasing interest shown by European countries in Islamic financial services. The Forums are also tailored for European regulators and market players and aim to provide:

• an overview of the Islamic financial services industry, as well as of various regulatory approaches taken to supervise it;
• a platform to discuss the relevant global prudential regulations for the Islamic financial services industry developed by the IFSB, compared with those developed in other international frameworks, such as Basel III; and
• an avenue for understanding the features and dynamics of different regional markets in line with the IFSB’s efforts to facilitate sound and stable growth of the Islamic financial services industry.

Previous Forums have been held in Luxembourg (2005), Frankfurt (2007) and Paris (2009). Previous topics include respectively: “Overview of Islamic Financial Services and the Challenges in Europe”; “The IFSB Standards and Comparison with Basel II”; and “Liquidity Management Issues”. The Paris Forum was honoured by the presence of H.E. Christine Lagarde, the then Finance Minister of France.

Interested participants are welcome to register their attendance at event page. Please contact Ms. Yazmin Aziz at [email protected] for queries on the Forum.