The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) awards IFAAS (Islamic Finance Advisory & Audit Services – www.ifaas.com) the ‘Education Partner’ status.

The agreement between the parties was signed by Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari, Acting Secretary General AAOIFI, and Mr. Farrukh Raza, Managing Director, IFAAS.

Mr. Raza lauded the role that AAOIFI is playing in the much-needed standardization of the global Islamic finance industry, including its contribution towards the human resource development and capacity building initiatives.

He said, “We acknowledge and appreciate AAOIFI’s work in industry standard-development but also its highly specialized professional certifications such as CIPA and CSAA. I had the opportunity to look at the revamped version of CIPA in good detail and I am glad to be thoroughly impressed with the quality of this course. As an active practitioner of Islamic finance, I am convinced that all accountants working in the Islamic banking and finance industry will find this certification highly valuable and rewarding from professional development but also for personal success and growth standpoints. As a provider of choice for Islamic finance advisory solutions to the growing Islamic finance community worldwide, IFAAS has always supported AAOIFI in its endeavors and it will be great to add a new dimension to this longstanding close collaboration”.

As an AAOIFI Education Partner, IFAAS will work with AAOIFI in multiple jurisdictions to promote AAOIFI certifications, particularly the ‘Certified Islamic Professional Accountant’ CIPA certification, through advocacy related work at regulatory level and by way of conducting orientation seminars, providing world-class trainings and crash courses, and holding of exams.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari thanked Mr. Farrukh Raza for IFAAS support and for partnering with AAOIFI for the promotion of CIPA program, particularly in European and African countries. He said, “Due to the fundamental differences between conventional and Islamic finance, there is a genuine need for both specialized standards and specialized professional certifications, such as CIPA which caters to the knowledge and skill gap for accountants working in the Islamic financial institutions. We, at AAOIFI, strongly believe that CIPA should be made a pre-requisite in the Fit and Proper criteria for the role of CFOs of Islamic Banks as that would only help the industry grow stronger and move forward. The new CIPA program, revamped over a period of three years, is benchmarked to international qualifications and which goes into the details of accounting for Islamic financial institutions.”

Mr. Farhan Noor, Head of Professional Development at AAOIFI, explained the new CIPA program launched in its English version. “Candidates of CIPA program need to pass four module exams and complete one year of practical experience requirement at a pre-approved institution with an External Supervisor. The Arabic version of CIPA will be offered next year and there are plans to make CIPA available in Turkish and

French languages in future as well. Registration for new CIPA is now open for the June 2018 exams”. Mr. Farhan also talked about the CSAA certification and the remodeling project in progress to split it into two specialized certifications as ‘Shari’ah Advisory’ and ‘Shari’ah Auditing’, with the expected launch in late 2018.