December 1, 2006 – The Council of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has admitted 16 new members to the IFSB, bringing the total IFSB members to 110. The new members include The Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia and The Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Saudi Arabia as Full Members, and 14 Observer Members.
The admission of SC and CMA marks the entrance of securities regulatory authorities in the IFSB since its Council decided to open its Full Membership to the securities, insurance and takaful regulators. Meanwhile, three other regulatory and supervisory authorities, The Insurance Commission of Jordan, Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Central Bank of Morocco have been admitted as Observer Members. In addition, the application of 11 market players have been approved to join as Observer Members.
Membership of the Asian Development Bank, an Observer Member since 2003, has been upgraded to Associate Member, giving it the same membership status as three other international inter-governmental organizations namely International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and Bank for International Settlements.
The new members admitted in the 29th November Council meeting in Jeddah, chaired by the Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait, H.E. Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz Al-Sabah are as follows:
Full Members:
Associate Members:
Asian Development Bank (upgraded from Observer status)
Observer Members:
Their membership is effective January 2007. With this, the 110 members of the IFSB comprise 27 regulatory and supervisory authorities, 5 international intergovernmental organizations and 78 market players from 21 countries.
The full list of 110 IFSB members can be seen on www.ifsb.org. Their roles and responsibilities (by category) can be seen in the IFSB Articles of Agreement downloadable from the site.
