The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the global umbrella organisation for Islamic financial institutions (IFIs), has launched a roundtable meeting of the directors of operations and investment of IFIs.

Themed "Internationalisation Strategies for Islamic financial Institutions," the meeting was attended by senior Islamic bankers and international experts from more than 15 countries, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The event started with a keynote address by Central Bank of Bahrain executive director of banking supervision Khalid Hamad with Islamic Development Bank president Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali and vice-president Dr Abdulaziz Al Hinai, along with CIBAFI secretary-general Abdelilah Belatik in attendance.

The first session, facilitated by Carel Oosthuizen, formerly of the IMF and Deloitte representative Dr Hatim El Tahir, was on heterogeneity in Islamic finance development, Sharia and regulatory frameworks across different jurisdictions.

The second session, facilitated by Strategy& representative Dr Philipp Wackerbeck, discussed key requirements for internationalisation, modes of entry and strategies to achieve competitive positioning of foreign Islamic financial institutions.

The third session, facilitated by Ogilvynoor's Vaquas Alvi and Al Baraka Banking Group' Ayman Mohammed was on rebranding as an expansion strategy for Islamic financial institutions to go mainstream.

Some of the key points for Islamic finance are of understanding customers and their needs, overcoming the stereotype image, not losing values at any cost, connecting and resonating with the community, customisation, thinking like a brand, etc, experts said.

To be just Sharia-compliant is not sufficient, and the strategies need to incorporate the emotional connections with consumers, and especially to raise awareness among Muslim consumers with respect to how Islamic finance differs from conventional ones, they said.

Discussions will continue today on the topics of "Cross-border Islamic syndicated financing" and "Trade financing for IFIs to boost global real-sector linkages.” - TradeArabia News Service