Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) held a public hearing on the exposure draft of the revised standard, “Investments in Sukuk, Shares and Similar Instruments” (revised FAS 25) at the AAOIFI head-office in Seef district, Kingdom of Bahrain.

This standard is a part of a comprehensive project on Sukuk which included plans to revise its existing Shari’ah standard on Sukuk (Shari’ah Standard No. 17) (issued 2003) and its Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 25 “Investment in Sukuk, Shares and Similar Instruments” (issued 2010), as well as, to develop standards on the accounting for the areas not covered earlier, including accounting for the Sukuk issuance. The objective of review and revision of the earlier standard included, in particular, the improvements from Shari’ah and transparency perspective.

This revised standard aims at setting out and improving the principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of investment in Sukuk, shares and other similar investments.

AAOIFI’s public hearing webinar included interaction with the Islamic banking and finance industry stakeholders including professionals from accounting and audit firms, academicians and other professionals for the purpose of collecting feedback for the revised standard which better focuses AAOIFI’s efforts on developing Sukuk market globally.

The industry feedback received during the public hearings in the form of questions, comments, and recommendations, as well as those directly provided to AAOIFI by the industry stakeholders is compiled and presented to the AAOIFI Accounting Board to be discussed and deliberated upon before the final issuance of the standard.

Mr. Irshad Mahmoud, Accounting Board member chaired the event, while AAOIFI Secretariat lead by Mr. Mohammad Majd Bakir, Senior Manager, Standards Development, conducted the webinar.

The Acting Secretary General, AAOIFI, Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari stated: “Sukuk are considered to be common asset classes in Islamic capital markets and this standard is an important revision to the existing FAS 25 standard issued in July 2010. I would like to express appreciation to the webinar participants for their active participation and for providing feedback on its exposure draft.”

Several public hearings for AAOIFI accounting, governance and ethics standards have earlier taken place in Bahrain, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates among others, and future public hearings will be held in different parts of the world to obtain the industry feedback on other exposure drafts already issued by AAOIFI. The details of the future public hearings will be announced before the events for participation by the industry stakeholders.

The Exposure draft can be accessed through the link: Investment in Sukuk, Shares and Similar Instruments (revised FAS 25), and feedback on the draft can be emailed to [email protected].