FSB-IRTI Mid-Term Review of the Ten-Year Framework and Strategies for Islamic Financial Services Industry Development Assesses the Progress of the Industry and Provides Updated Recommendations

A report "Mid-Term Review of the Ten-Year Framework and Strategies for Islamic Financial Services Industry (IFSI) Development" will be launched on 19 May 2014 during an IFSB-IRTI session to be held in conjunction with the 11th IFSB Summit in Mauritius. The Mid-Term Review report is a joint initiative of the IFSB and Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), the research arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB).

Previously, in March 2007, the IFSB, IDB and IRTI had jointly developed, in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, the IFSI Development: Ten-Year Framework and Strategies (Ten-Year Framework). The aim was to provide a general blueprint or guideline that may benefit national authorities in designing and developing their national plans and initiatives as part of their financial sector development policies.

After five years of the initial publication, a Mid-Term Review of the initiative was undertaken with the aim to assess the progress made by the IFSI in implementing the 2007 recommendations, incorporate the new developments taking place in the global financial system and the challenges faced by the IFSI. This would ultimately ensure that the Ten-Year Framework not only continues to remain current, relevant and beneficial but also provide resilience and stability to IFSI in moving forward.

The Mid-Term Review of the Ten-Year Framework has taken into account feedback from regulatory and supervisory authorities as well as market players and select leading industry experts. The feedback was obtained via several platforms organised by the IFSB and IRTI, namely a Roundtable on the Mid-Term Review of the Ten-Year Framework on 6 April 2013 in Doha, Qatar; a Forum on preliminary findings of the mid-term review on 14 May 2013 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and a High-Level Review Committee Meeting on 17 September 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey. An industry-wide Survey covering the regulators and market players of the IFSI was also conducted in mid-2013.

Benefitting from these comprehensive inputs, the revised Framework comprises four main sections – (a) overall assessments and progress of the priorities and initiatives suggested in the 2007 Ten-Year Framework, (b) sector-level assessments – Islamic banking, Islamic non-bank financial institutions, Takāful and ReTakāful services, and Islamic capital markets – arising from developments in the global financial system post-crisis, (c) updated framework recommendations and key performance indicators for measuring progress, and (d) measures to be undertaken by all stakeholders of the IFSI to implement the 16 recommendations of the Ten-Year Framework, outlined under three categories, namely Enablement, Performance and Reach.

The Mid-Term Review report will be launched on 19 May 2014 during an IFSB-IRTI pre-summit session on Mid-Term Review of the Islamic Financial Services Industry Development: Ten-Year Framework and Strategies. The session will also discuss the proposed measures to address the gaps or challenges in meeting the objectives of the Ten-Year Framework, as well as the roles of the public and private sectors and other stakeholders of the IFSI in carrying out the 16 recommendations.

The Report has been approved by the Council of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) in its 24th meeting on 27 March 2014.