Kuala Lumpur 27 Nov 2012 – The 2nd ISRA Colloquium which is part of ISRA’s initiative to provide a venue for young scholars in Islamic finance to share their thoughts was held on 27 November 2012 in Sasana Kijang Bank Negara Malaysia. The colloquium was officiated by the Honorable Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz at Sasana Kijang.

In her opening address, she highlighted a few key imperatives in addition to the efforts to ensure the financial stability of Islamic finance and to continue the development of the industry.

Se stress the need for greater clarity on the value proposition of Islamic finance to ensure that it serves the real economy and continues to benefit society. Islamic finance should be accessible and inclusive to all, including the micro-entrepreneurs as well as the lower income groups.

The theme of this year’s colloquium ‘Islamic Finance in a Challenging Economy: Moving Forward’ reflects the challenges to be addressed as well as tasks to be accomplished by Islamic finance in the next stage of its development. Thus, the distinguished Prof. Dr. Abbas Mirakhor, First Holder INCEIF Chair of Islamic Finance delivered his keynote address entitled ‘Shari’ah Compliant Macro-economic Policy’. He discussed the need for striving to realize the ideal Islamic finance paradigm, in which its essential function would be spreading and allocating risk among market participants rather than allowing it to concentrate in the borrowing class.

In conjunction with ISRA Colloquium 2012, ISRA also inaugurated its latest product, I-FIKR, which stands for Islamic Finance Knowledge Repository. It is a comprehensive database reference that stores a wide range of fatwas, articles, books and compendiums on Islamic finance, which is expected to advance Islamic finance knowledge, to facilitate the drive for improvements in Islamic financial institutions, and to become the platform that promotes rigorous research in the field and contributes to the continuous professional development of the Islamic finance industry.

The colloquium commenced after the opening ceremony with the presentation of three papers by ISRA researcher, one each in categories of Islamic Banking, Islamic Capital Market and Takaful respectively.

ISRA Paper 1 “Islamic Liquidity Management: A Collateralised Instrument Based on Salam” – Dr. Beebee Salma Sairally

ISRA Paper 2 “Framework of Dealing with Shari’ah Non-Compliance Transaction for Islamic Financial Institution” – Mohammad Mahbubi Ali

ISRA Paper 3“Takaful Benefits Protection from the Shariah Perspective” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah

This session was followed with the presentation of research papers by invited guests as well as other presenters in English. Upon completion of this session, lunch was served. The afternoon session continued with three (3) parallel sessions that ended at 4.30pm with a Question and Answer session. The event then continued with the announcement of Best Papers Awards by the chairman of the Review Committee. The Best Paper Award was presented by the Executive Director of ISRA, Associate Professor Dr.Akram Laldin. There were two (2) categories for the Award, namely Arabic and English.

Category I: Best Paper in Arabic

Paper: صناديق الاستثمار الإسلامية مدخل استراتيجي معاصر لتعبئة الموارد المالية وتوظيفها في إطار البنوك الإسلامية

Author(s): Sa‘ad ‘Abdullah Al-Aqra‘, Dr.‘Arif ‘Ali ‘Arif
Presenter: Sa‘ad ‘Abdullah Al-Aqra‘

Category II: Best Paper in English

Paper: The Art of Developing Alternative Risk Transfer (ART) Solutions nnder the Ambit of the Shari’ah
Author & Presenter: Tobias Frenz

This colloquium successfully attracted more than 250 local and international speakers and participants who shared their views and thoughts and exchanged their insights on the development of the Islamic finance industry in Malaysia and globally. In total, 28 papers in both English and Arabic were presented at the Colloquium. The event ended with closing remarks by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asyraf Wajdi Dato’ Dusuki, Head of the Research Affairs Department. He congratulated all the presenters, participants and the organizing committee for making the event a success. He expressed the wish that an increased number of participants from industry would add more value to the event in the future.