ISLAMIC FINANCE INDUSTRY HAS MORE ROOM TO ADVANCE IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

By Santhia Thevi Panjanadan

KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Islamic finance industry has
more room to advance in corporate governance practices and to be in the global
platform as its prudent regulatory framework is seen as a global benchmark.

Malaysia has a comprehensive regulatory and governance framework that
catered to the unique characteristics of Islamic finance with stronger
standards, said Deloitte's Global Islamic Finance Leader Daud Vicary Abdullah.

"We need to play by the global rules to be on the global platform. We have a
good level of regulatory and governance framework that could be benchmarked as
world standard," he told reporters after a talk series on Corporate Governance
Lessons For Islamic Financial Institutions here Friday.

"Malaysia is in a leadership position in Islamic finance and it gives a
better platform to move global," he said.

He said Malaysia needs to incorporate and practise skills to excellent level
that would set the direction to be a global leader in all segments of Islamic
financial services.

"Transparency, corporate governance, risk management, accountability,
press freedom, human rights, democratic rights and legal governance are among
the skills.

"Excellency in upholding these skills had led New Zealand to be ranked as
the top country in the Islamic City Index, a study conducted by George
Washington University students last year, followed by Luxembourg and Ireland,"
he added.

Malaysia was ranked 34th, the top Muslim nation, followed by Kuwait in the
46th ranking, among the 208 countries.

Daud said non-Islamic countries were behaving more Islamic than Muslim
nations due to the excellent conduct in skills.

The intellectual discourse talk series was hosted by the International
Centre for Education in Islamic Finance established by Bank Negara Malaysia,
Malaysia's central bank.