CBI's Komijani to Chair IFSB's Malaysia Meeting

The 15th annual General Assembly and the 30th meeting of the council of the Islamic Financial Services Board will convene in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 6.

Central Bank of Iran Vice Governor Akbar Komijani will be a keynote speaker at the events, which also include other conferences and meetings held during the two days prior to the main event, the official website of CBI reported.

In mid-December, IFSB announced the appointment of the Central Bank of Iran’s governor as its chairman for 2017.

The website reported that Valiollah Seif, governor of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will steer the chairmanship of IFSB while Fazle Kabir, governor of Bangladesh Bank (the central bank of Bangladesh), was appointed deputy chairman.

According to IFSB, Seif took over the chairmanship of the international standard-setting organization from Tarek Amer, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt. The new appointments came into effect on 1 January 2017.

During this year's event and considering the fact that the tenure of the current secretary-general is coming to an end, "the new secretary-general, which is the highest office in the IFSB, will be chosen, giving this particular round of meetings added importance", CBI noted in its statement.

CBI is the official organizer of this year's IFSB events, a responsibility which it last held in 2005.

The 29th meeting of IFSB council, hosted by the Central Bank of Egypt, was held last year in Cairo, Egypt. It was attended by 10 central bank governors and deputy governors of regulatory and supervisory authorities, and 10 representatives from among IFSB members, representing 14 countries and the Islamic Development Bank. The meeting was chaired by Tarek Amer.

The Kuala Lumpur-based IFSB was officially inaugurated on Nov. 3, 2002, and started operations on March 10, 2003. It serves as an international standard-setting body of regulatory and supervisory agencies that have vested interest in ensuring the soundness and stability of the Islamic financial services industry, which is defined broadly to include banking, capital market and insurance.

In advancing this mission, IFSB promotes the development of an Islamic financial services industry by introducing new, or adapting existing international standards consistent with the principles of Islamic law, and recommending them for adoption.

To this end, the work of IFSB complements that of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, International Organization of Securities Commissions and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors.