An official delegation from the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) headed by the Secretary General of AAOIFI and the Chairman of the AAOIFI Governance and Ethics Board, held multiple strategic meetings with important regulatory and supervisory institutions, as well as with other stakeholders in Istanbul, Republic of Türkiye. The visit was supported and facilitated by Participation Banks Association of Türkiye (TKBB).

The delegation held meetings with the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA – BDDK), the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Finance Office (CBFO), Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) and Insurance and Private Pension Regulation and Supervision Agency (IPRSA – SEDDK).

At BRSA, AAOIFI delegation met His Excellency Dr. Yakup Asarkaya, Second Chairman of BRSA; Mr. Muhammet Erişen, Vice Chairman; Dr. İlker Koç, Head of Participation Banking Department; Mr. Nuh Karataştan, Head of Foreign Relations Department, among others. At CBFO, AAOIFI delegation met Dr. Tarik Akin, Head of the department of participation finance and his team and discussed ways and means to collaborate and shared experiences and future plans at the policy level. The delegation held fruitful interactions with the Deputy Governor of the CBRT, Dr. Emrah Şener and his team. Lastly, AAOIFI met Dr. Yusuf Dinç, board member, IPRSA at its office in Istanbul.

The meetings were aimed at strengthening strategic ties on areas of mutual interest between AAOIFI and the key stakeholders in Türkiye. The meetings also addressed initiatives to cater to the need and interest to develop participation finance industry in Türkiye and to foster harmonisation of standards and practises with the Turkish counterparts. AAOIFI Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) are already translated in Turkish language.

Expressing satisfaction on the successful visit to Türkiye, AAOIFI Secretary General, Mr. Omar Mustafa Ansari said, “AAOIFI is grateful to TKBB for their support, cooperation and hospitality in Türkiye. We believe that Türkiye has a huge potential to be one of the biggest markets in global participation finance industry, and there is a lot of unexplored room to learn both ways for the development of the industry. We are confident that this visit will open doors for many more future collaborations, synergy and harmonized industry practices.”

As part of the visit AAOIFI also conducted a public hearing of its exposure draft on “Syndicated Financing” and held 27^th meeting of its AAOIFI Governance and Ethics Board (AGEB) at the TKBB premises.