The Central Bank of Bahrain, in partnership with Middle East Global Advisors, has announced the launch of a new leaderboard to critically appraise the performance of Islamic banks and institutions. The leaderboard, which will become a key performance indicator at the annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC), is part of the Islamic banking world’s attempt to give incentive to banks to improve performance and build upon the achievements in the industry’s 40-year history.
Sayd Farook, Vice Chairman and CEO, Middle East Global Advisors said that the WIBC Leaderboard would help the Islamic financial industry to, “Critically appraise the challenges and growth opportunities that lie ahead. It will provide high visibility rankings of Islamic banks and financial institutions at the global, regional and national levels, in terms of various robust financial and governance metrics.”
Joining him at the press conference, Khalid Hamad Abdul-Rahman Hamad, Executive Director of Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Bahrain highlighted that such rankings are essential for understanding and assessing where the industry’s veterans and leaders in the Islamic finance industry need to head to and what needs to happen to get the industry there.
This comes as the WIBC has identified outstanding challenges that continue to face the Islamic financial sector including the shortage of available liquid assets, the gap between the underlying principles of Islamic finance and its current practice, its outreach to unbanked communities and its ability to universally appeal to a wider range of customers.
The leaderboard and its benchmarks will feature prominently at this year’s WIBC, which is due to take place on the 1–3 December at the Gulf Hotel in Manama, Bahrain.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
