Progress of Islamic banking highlighted: The News

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan in collaboration with the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has organised a three-day workshop (from Feb 23 to Feb 25, 2009), as a part of its capacity building initiative for the Islamic banking industry.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop held at the Learning Resource Centre of SBP here on Monday, Khawla Al-Nobani, Assistant Secretary General of the IFSB, said that she felt encouraged at the healthy growth of the Islamic banking industry of Pakistan.

She appreciated SBP’s role in providing an enabling environment to the industry through the provision of suitable regulatory and supervisory framework. She expressed confidence that the workshop would prove to be very beneficial for the industry players and the supervisory agency in adoption/adaptation of the standards in the country, said an SBP release here.

While inaugurating the workshop, Pervez Said, Director Islamic Banking Department of the State Bank, appreciated the significant role that the IFSB is playing as an international standard setting body thereby helping the Islamic financial services industry to grow worldwide on a sound and stable footing.

He also praised IFSB for the hard work being put in for preparing various standards wherein best international practices are followed through an exhaustive process involving thorough research, discussions, public hearings, workshops/seminars etc. In Pakistan, he pointed out, SBP’s five-year strategy for the development of Islamic banking industry, envisaged rolling out of various international prudential standards developed by IFSB as an important pillar.

SBP has accordingly seized the opportunity by capitalising on IFSB’s expertise through holding such workshops at this juncture, he added. Participants from the local Islamic banking industry and various regulatory and supervisory departments of the State Bank are attending the workshop which is focusing on issues like risk management, corporate governance and supervisory review process.

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