The Board of Trustees of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), as a part of strategic initiatives to further strengthen its standard-setting process and to ensure that the broader public interest is served by its standards, has recently approved the constitution of Public Interest Monitoring Consultative Committee (PIMCC) for a 4-year term.

The process was completed after undertaking a comprehensive, robust and dynamic mechanism of obtaining nominations, shortlisting suitable candidates and conducting necessary evaluation processes under the purview of the nominations committee of the AAOIFI Board of Trustees. This includes providing reasonable representation to different regions and types of institutions as well.

The objective of PIMCC is to advise and provide its observations to AAOIFI’s Board of Trustees and technical boards (excluding the Shari’ah board) regarding AAOIFI’s responsiveness to public interest as incorporated in its standard setting process (specifically accounting, auditing, governance and ethics standards) and outcome.

H.E. Sheikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Chairman of Board of Trustees at AAOIFI, stated “we are pleased to have been able to constitute a diverse and experienced committee representing regulatory institutions as well as independent professionals from different parts of the world. We are confident that with the help of the PIMCC, AAOIFI will be able to further enhance its standards development process and ensure the interest of all stakeholders is served for the development of Islamic finance industry globally.”

The seven-member PIMCC shall have an oversight on the functioning of the AAOIFI Accounting Board (AAB) and AAOIFI Governance and Ethics Board (AGEB) to ensure public interest is duly served. There are three members representing regulatory institutions and four independent experts.

The three regulatory members from Jordan, Maldives and Turkey include:

• H.E. Dr. Maher Sheikh Hasan – Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Jordan;
• Dr. Aishath Muneeza – Chairperson of Shariah Advisory Council, Capital Market Development Authority of Maldives; and
• Dr. Abdurrahman Cetin – Senior Chief Banking Specialist, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA).

The four independent members from Bahrain, Malaysia and Pakistan include:

• Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif – President and CEO, LemrAir Consultancy, Former President and CEO, Al Baraka Banking Group;
• Prof. Dr. Akram Laldin – Executive Director, International Shariʽah Research Academy for Islamic Finance;
• Dr. Abdelilah Belatik – Secretary General, CIBAFI; and
• Mr. Hafiz Muhammad Yousaf – Former President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP).

Mr. Noor Abid, Chairman of AAOIFI Nominations Committee, stated “we received overwhelming number of nominations from various institutions and individuals from around the world. We, the AAOIFI Nominations Committee deliberated at length before recommending the members to the AAOIFI Board of Trustees for their consideration and subsequent approval. We are pleased with the final members and look forward to working with them.”