Bahrain-based International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) continues to spearhead initiatives for Islamic capital and money market (ICMM) standardisation, board members were told at a meeting.

Hosted by ABC Islamic Bank at its office, the IIFM's 29th board of directors meeting was attended by directors and senior representatives from Central Bank of Bahrain, Bank Indonesia, Central Bank of Sudan, Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam, Labuan Financial Services Authority (Malaysia), Islamic Development Bank, ABC Islamic Bank, Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain, Standard Chartered Saadiq, Mashreq Al Islami and Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank.

IIFM chairman Khalid Hamad presided over the meeting which reviewed progress on ongoing initiatives related to collateralised murabaha liquidity management documentation and both Islamic cross currency swap and Islamic foreign exchange forwards.

The board also appreciated the work undertaken by IIFM and its partner International Swaps and Derivatives Association for creating legal certainty with the soon-to-be-issued legal opinion on English Law which will greatly assist the market in further implementation of the 'Tahawwut Master Agreement'.

The publication of IIFM's documentation standards and guidelines for Islamic hedging and liquidity management was also welcomed.

The directors reaffirmed their earlier decision on the sukuk standardisation initiative by IIFM.

IIFM chief executive Ijlal Ahmed Alvi said the organisation has already started the consultative process.

He added that the IIFM is considering not only developing guidelines which will help the primary and secondary market but also the development of sukuk structure and documentation standards.-TradeArabia News Service