The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), the standard setting body for Islamic funds, has published the governing document which is seen as an essential step in the development of the market for Shari’ah compliant hedging transactions.

The much awaited ISDA/IIFM Tahawwut Master Agreement was published in collaboration with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).

It is the first step towards bringing a full set of definitions, confirmations, necessary law reforms and other benefits to the Islamic financial services industry over a period of time, a statement said.

Based on huge interest in the market as well as requests by its members, IIFM is organising a series of industry workshops in various locations to familiarize Islamic finance practitioners with the groundbreaking agreement.

The workshops will provide the participants with an understanding of the significance of the document, its key features and mechanics, and the types of transactions that can be undertaken.

“A tremendous amount of effort has gone into the development of the Tahawwut Master Agreement,” said Ijlal Alvi, chief executive officer, IIFM.

“We now want to ensure that this agreement is used as widely as possible by the industry. The workshops will provide Islamic finance professionals with a detailed understanding of the agreement and how they can utilize it in their day-to-day transactions,” he added.

The first workshop was held in Bahrain, where more than 25 financial institutions from Bahrain, the GCC region as well as the Central Bank of Bahrain participated.

“The participants strongly recommended that IIFM should organize such events as it is a new market document which requires explanation before the institutions can begin implementing/adopting the Tahawwut Master Agreement across jurisdictions,” said Alvi.

More workshops are planned in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other locations currently under consideration, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service