BI plans conference on sharia banking
BI plans conference on sharia banking
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Bank Indonesia is planning to hold an international conference
on Islamic sharia banking to discuss its possible contribution to
monetary stability.
The central bank's deputy governor, Ibrahim Maulana, was
quoted by Antara as saying on Friday that the conference would
discuss sharing banking systems, and review the impacts of the
Basel II international banking accord.
The findings of the latest research on sharia banking will
also be presented at the conference, which will run from Sept. 30
to Oct. 2.
According to Ibrahim, the conference will feature some 25
speakers from various international agencies, such as the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World
Bank, and the International Islamic Rating Agency.
Representatives from a number of central banks whose countries
have applied the sharing banking system are scheduled to attend
the conference.
Titled "Risk management, regulation and supervision to unify
international regulation", the conference will be a collaborative
project between Bank Indonesia, the Ministry of Finance and the
IDB.
Globally, some 140 banks or sharia financial institutions in
75 countries manage a total of US$230 billion in funds. They
offer a wide range of products and services starting from simple
retail products to financing for major infrastructure projects.
The sharia banking system works in line with the principles of
Islamic sharia. While conventional banks gets interest from
borrowers, sharia banks take a part of the profits made by
borrowers under a profit sharing arrangement.
Ibrahim said the total assets of domestic sharia banks are
predicted to jump by six percent by 2011.
According to Ibrahim, as of July 2003, the total assets of the
country's sharia banks stood at Rp 5.6 trillion, or 0.48 percent
of the total assets of the country's banks, which amount to Rp
1,111.68 trillion.
Currently, there are two full sharia banks in Indonesia, seven
conventional banks that also provide sharia products and 86 small
rural sharia banks, Ibrahim said.
According to Ibrahim, Hong Kong-based HSBC is going to launch
a new sharia unit, while local bank, Bank Tugu, plans to focus on
sharia products and to change its name to Bank Syariah Indonesia.