An official delegation from the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) headed by Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari, Secretary General of AAOIFI and Mr. Hamad Oqab, the Chairman of the AAOIFI Accounting Board (AAB), held a series of strategic meetings with key market stakeholders the Arab Republic of Egypt. During the visit, the AAB’s 29^th meeting was also held on 25-26 September 2022 at ADIB-Egypt’s headquarters, Cairo, to continue the agenda of development of AAOIFI financial accounting standards. The meeting was supported and facilitated by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)-Egypt and the Egyptian Islamic Finance Association (EIFA).

The visit also witnessed the convention of talks with key stakeholders in the Egyptian market, prominently with the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), represented by Dr. Islam Azzam, Vice Chairman. The AAOIFI and FRA discussed issues of mutual interest, particularly the support that AAOIFI can provide to various stakeholders and market players in terms of standards implementation, technical assistance, training and capacity building and issues such as means to support the sukuk sector, working with FRA on multiple initiatives related to financial market and capital market products, regulations, directives, etc.

During the visit, the AAB also held talks with ADIB-Egypt’s senior management including Mr. Mohammed Ali, Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Sameh Khalil, Head of Investment and Investor Relations and Microfinance, where multiple issues related to the state and progress of the Islamic finance in Egypt were discussed. Other meetings with Egyptian market players included those held with Sarwa Capital (represented by Mr. Ayman Al Sawi, Chief Executive Officer), Aman Financial Services (represented by Mr. Hazem Moghazi, Chief Executive Officer) and Egyptian Microfinance Company – Maksab (represented by Mr. Mohamed Ahmed Hassan, Chief Executive Officer) where relevant issues, market development and practices were highlighted and considered.

AAOIFI also participated in a conference co-organised by the Arab Administrative Development Organisation, League of Arab States and EIFA under the theme “Financial Technology and its Role in Developing the Islamic Banking Industry”, where Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari delivered a keynote presentation on “Challenges for Governance of Financial Technology”.

Expressing content on the successful visit to Egypt, Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari stated, “AAOIFI is grateful to all stakeholders in the Egyptian market for their substantial support, cooperation and hospitality during our visit. I would like also to extend heartfelt thanks to Dr. Muhammad Beltagi, member, AAB; and Chairman, EIFA, for his extensive efforts and support towards a successful convention of these events. We believe that Egypt has a great potential, and can still take more to attain its rightful place as a key market for Islamic banking and finance, given the structure of its population and the relatively concentrated demand for its product and services, let alone the role it historically played as a foundation step in the 1960s, that was exemplified in the Meit Ghamr experimentation”.