The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) is set to host the 14th edition of its annual Islamic banking and finance conference “AAOIFI – World Bank Conference” under the auspices of the Central Bank of Bahrain. The two-day conference will be held on the 3rd and 4th of November at the Gulf Hotel, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, under the theme “Revolutionary Changes in Global Islamic Finance Ecosystem: Need for Governance, Standardization and Regulatory Support”.
The conference will be held in cooperation with the World Bank, and with the support of various partners and sponsors including Islamic banks and financial institutions, academic institutions, the media and knowledge sharing platforms.
This year’s conference will explore new developments in the areas of FinTech, crowdfunding, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, smart contracts and artificial intelligence, as well as the risks and challenges these developments pose to the overall industry. Furthermore, the conference will deliberate, through an elite group of leading experts and professionals, on the need of regulations, governance and standardization to ensure that tools and activities are deployed in a safe, uniform and efficient manner.
On this occasion, H.E. Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa stated that “this landmark event has always brought together leading experts from across the industry to discuss a wide array of relevant topics and latest developments pertaining to Islamic banking and finance at large, and the conference of this year will address timely and emerging matters and issues. We hope that the discussions and deliberations will help us edge closer towards better diagnosis and understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. As always, we are thankful to all speakers, participants, sponsors and supporting institutions for their contributions towards making this conference a success”.

Key Sessions at the conference will tackle overcoming regulatory challenges posed by technology disruptions and technology-based unregulated financial intermediation; blockchain-based smart contracts: the need for Shari’ah rules and governance mechanism; Islamic crowdfunding: opportunities and challenges; and Shari’ah decision making process. The conference will also have panel discussions on equity screening and purification and the revision and review project of AAOIFI’s financial accounting standards.
The conference will additionally feature a special event that will be held in cooperation with the HSE-Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development (Russia) on Islamic Finance for Food Security: Connecting Russia and Muslim Countries (Gulf Hotel, 3 November 2019, 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.)
In addition, several partnership agreements among various stakeholders are expected to be signed during the two days conference. On this occasion, Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari, Secretary General,

AAOIFI, stated that “AAOIFI – World Bank conference provides an excellent platform to have detailed discussions on a wide variety of relevant issues in order to come up with possible solutions and to contemplate the way forward. AAOIFI, with the support of the industry, continues its efforts in developing standards for the broader Islamic finance industry worldwide, and may hopefully consider the requirements of Islamic FinTech in a bid to ensure that the industry moves on in the right direction efficiently”.
To register for the event, please email: nshareeda@aaoifi.com.