FINANCE - GENERAL - Accountancy giant Deloitte calls for tightening of Sharia finance rules

Islamic finance needs more regulation to boost the detection of risk and restore its reputation after a series of financial troubles within the industry’s GCC heartland, says Deloitte & Touche.

A “sizeable” number of Sharia-compliant financial companies were not following industry best practices, the international accounting company found in a survey of the Middle East.

A multilateral framework of rules controlling Islamic finance in the region was needed if the industry was serious about entering new markets, said Hatim el Tahir, the director of Deloitte’s Islamic finance knowledge centre in Bahrain. “Failure cases have triggered interest in more transparency and disclosure,” he said. “Increased corporate governance is needed within the management of Islamic finance products.”

FINANCE - GENERAL - Islamic financial institutions to restructure debts

Mideast finance leaders anticipate reforms in the post global financial crisis climate with 66% believing the industry is under-regulated.

Dubai: Over half of the Middle East's Islamic finance institutions (IFIs) flagged a need for raising capital and are likely to restructure current Islamic debt over the next 12 months, according to Deloitte's Islamic Finance leaders survey in the Middle East, the results of which were released yesterday.

REPORTS - The first Deloitte Islamic Finance leaders survey in the Middle East

This is the first Deloitte Islamic Finance leaders survey in a biannual series targeted at industry practitioners and leaders of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the Middle East. The survey is based on interviews conducted with industry leaders between April and June 2010.

Several key themes emerged in the results of this survey. The first is a fair consensus on the need for an effective regulatory framework and good governance. The survey findings emphasize the importance of introducing new or revised regulatory measures–chief among them being Islamic accounting standards and risk management.

LEGAL - 'Islamic finance industry is under regulated'

RIYADH: The total assets of Islamic finance sector in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which exceed $600 billion, have prompted the calls for regulating the Islamic finance industry and for imparting more training and skills to professionals working in this area. This was one of the findings of a major survey conducted by Deloitte's Islamic Finance Knowledge Center (IFKC), which was shared by Deloitte's experts, Tuesday.