Fleming Gulf's Asia Islamic Banking Conference

Online, March 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Malaysia, with an Islamic banking sector of about $43 billion, has been a pioneer in Islamic finance in Southeast Asia. Its industry is at an advanced stage of development, and Kuala Lumpur is competing with financial centres such as Dubai and London to become a global hub for Islamic banking. The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have relatively small Islamic banking sectors, matching the smaller Muslim populations in these countries. The Malaysian government has recently made the announcement that it will introduce several key measures to support the speedy development of Islamic finance. The announcement has been welcomed by the Islamic financial industry. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak confirmed in his 2010 budget speech that the government is to extend existing tax incentives for Islamic finance for another five years.

Asia Islamic Banking Conference shall answer questions like:

•What safeguards needs to be implemented to ensure securitization does not fail like the recent toxic assets in conventional banking? Are there safeguards already in-built in Islamic finance?
•How can Islamic Banking create distinction from conventional products?
•Is Islamic Finance in its true sense being practiced today?
•Can Islamic Treasury compete with conventional Treasury?
•Can an Islamic Bank chart its own direction if the same Islamic Bank is a fully- owned subsidiary of a Conventional Bank (i.e. who is actually driving the strategy?
•Which Islamic Banking model is the best - standalone or subsidiary of a Conventional Bank?
•Islamic banking and terrorism, are they linked?

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER PANEL

•Dr. Mohamad Akram Laldin, International Shari'ah Research, Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ,Executive Director, Member of Bank Negara Malaysia, Shari'ah Advisory Council & Member of HSBC, Global Shari'ah dvisory Board

•Prof. Necdet SENSOY,Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey - Member of the Board

•Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer

•Jamelah Jamaluddin, Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Berhad, Chief Executive Officer

•Dr. Yahia Abdul Rahman, LARIBA Bank of Whittier, USA, Chairman and CEO

•Puan Fozia Amanulla, EONCAP Islamic Bank Berhad, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director

•Etsuaki Yoshida, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Deputy Chief, Africa Office and Middle East Division, Visiting Associate Professor (Islamic Finance), Waseda University

•Prof Dr Syed Hamid AlJunid, INCEIF , Professor of Applied Finance, Head of Economics & Governance Department

•Dr Mohd Daud Bakar, President, International Institute of Islamic Finance (IIIF) Inc.

•Prasanna Seshachellam, (Dubai Financial Services Authority) DFSA, Associate Director, Supervision

•Dr Humayon Dar, BMB Islamic UK Ltd, Chief Executive Officer

•Ibrahim Hassan, Maybank Islamic Berhad, Chief Executive Officer

•Prof Dato' Dr Mohd Azmi Omar, Dean, Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, International Islamic University Malaysia

•Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf, Islamic Finance Expert