Nizam Yaquby at KLIFF 2008

By Habhajan Singh
[Picture: Three scholars at KLIFF 2007, from left, Nizam , ISRA executive director Dr Mohamad Akram Laldin and Dr Daud]
Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, a Shariah scholar actively engaged with various financial institutions worldwide, will return to the Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum (KLIFF) 2008 forum in mid-November.
The forum kicks off with the Third KLIFF International Shariah Forum on Nov 17 will deliberate on Shariah issues affecting Islamic banking and finance. Another Shariah scholar that will lend his expertise is Malaysia's Dr Mohd Daud Bakar of the International Institute of Islamic Finance.
Nizam sits on the advisory panels of various international financial institutions, including HSBC Amanah, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and BNP Paribas. He is a graduate in Economics and Comparative Religion from McGill University has been a teacher of Tafsir since 1976.
In last year's KLIFF forum, the noted Islamic scholar said tht competition among Islamic financial hubs will be good for the growing industry and they should strive to excel in some particular area. Besides Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, London, Singapore and Hong Kong are making their moves to capture a piece of the fast growing Islamic finance industry.
Malaysia floated the idea of the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) initiative in August 2006 while the United Arab Emirates has its Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Under MIFC Malaysia has stated that it intends to become an international centre for the following areas: origination, issuance, distribution and trading of international currency sukuk and Islamic treasury and money market instruments; fund and wealth management services; international currency Islamic financial services, which encompasses deposit and financing products and services, international takaful and re-takaful; and Islamic finance education, training, consultancy and research.
KLIFF's Shariah forum is followed by the two-day 5th KLIFF 2008 which begins on Nov 18, the key event organised by the Centre for Research and Training Events Sdn Bhd (CERT) together with the co-hosts, Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority (LOFSA) and Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC).
Takaful will also gets its airing for two days beginning Nov 20 at the 4th International Convention on Takaful and Retakaful, an event jointly organised by Malaysia Takaful Association (MTA) and CERT. It is noted that although takaful has been in the market for more than 20 years, it has yet to make significant inroads.
In Malaysia, it said the level of market penetration in terms of takaful certificates in force over the total population is only 3.8% compared to a market penetration for conventional insurance of 34.7%. (By Habhajan Singh, The Malaysian Reserve, Oct 28, 2008, Page 8)