The AAB in its 9^th Meeting held in Bahrain on 7 and 8 Rajab 1439H, corresponding to 24 and 25 March 2018 approved the exposure draft (Exposure draft No. 01/2018) of the revised standard on “Investment in Sukuk, shares and similar instruments” (earlier FAS 25) to be issued for feedback and comments.

The review and revision of FAS 25 “Investment in Sukuk, Shares and Similar Instruments” issued in 2010 was part of AAOIFI’s comprehensive project on Sukuk, which was initiatited taking into consideration the experts comments through interaction, workshops and public hearings of the other draft standards within the project, as well as, considering the changes in the global good practices of accounting. The exposure draft of the revised standard improves upon and supersedes FAS 25 and aims at setting out principles for the classification, recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of investment in Sukuk, shares and other similar instruments of investments made by Islamic financial institutions.

Additonally, certain specific Shari’ah requirements, with regard to monetary debt-type instruments and amortized cost accounting have also been taken care of. The standard shall apply to an institution’s investment, categorized according to their nature and the business model of the investor.

It is also noteworthy to mention that the AAOIFI Accounting Board (AAB) issued an amendment to FAS 25 in December of 2017. The amendment allowed retrospective application, unless impracticable, by an IFI. Please click on the following hyperlink to access the above-referred amendent: https://goo.gl/159SWu

The Chairman of the AAOIFI Accouting Board, Mr. Hamad Al-Oqab, stated that “the revised standard will bring significant changes from its predecessor standard (FAS 25), in many distinctive aspects. The overall accounting and financial reporting approach is now in line with the global good practices and certain specific aspects have been addressed for the first time. Additionally, we believe that the revised standard will bring greater conformity to Shari’ah requirements and to the financial reporting in line with the specific characteristics of Islamic investment instruments.”

The public hearings for the standard will be held in the upcoming months of 2018 in different parts of the world – to obtain industry feedback on the exposure draft in addition to comments in writing.

Futher details with respect to dates and venues, will be announced shortly via the AAOIFI website. Comments on the exposure draft are welcome and should be directed no later than 30 June 2018 to accounting@aaoifi.com. All comments and suggestions of the public hearings and written comments are presented to AAB to discuss and to make necessary changes required.

The exposure draft can be accessed on the AAOIFI website via the following link:

https://goo.gl/JX5kAq