Announcement

THEMATIC WORKSHOP ON ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INNOVATIONS (ICIFI 2015)

Dates: 21-22 October 2015, Venue: Turin Italy

Jointly Organised by

IIslamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI, IDB), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The University of Turin, Turin, Italy
Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The Conference is programmed to be in correlation and following to the Turin Islamic Economic Forum (TIFF) 2015 (http://www.tief2015.org) that will be held in Turin 19th and 20th October, 2015

BACKGROUND

Islamic financial markets have gained momentum over the past few decades, by demonstrating the strong foundation as well as the practicality of the Islamic based-financial industry and the contribution it can make to the global financial markets. This fast growth of the Islamic finance industry was mainly due to the increasing demand for Islamic financial products by both institutional and retail clientele, not only in majority Muslim countries, but also in many minority Muslim countries, which is a sign of global acknowledgment of the Islamic finance industry.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the industry is still operating far below its real potential level, shown by its current global market size. Thus, in order for the Islamic finance industry to reach its real potential level, and to maintain its continuing momentum and achieve sustainable growth, there is a need to develop advanced Islamic financial instruments to enhance the depth and breadth of the industry. Hence, there is an urgent need for significant innovative efforts for the Islamic financial industry. This would offer greater economic efficiency through the expansion of opportunities for risk sharing, reduction of transaction costs, asymmetric information and agency costs.

In this regard, the process of Islamic financial innovation has been complex and sensitive as it requires multi-disciplinary understanding of the various shari’ah and finance aspects. Furthermore, shari’ah scholars and shari’ah Supervisory Boards (SSBs) in different countries use different approaches for Islamic financial innovation processes. This has resulted in major differences and gaps in Islamic banking and finance across countries, which has subsequently contributed in weakening the Islamic banking and finance industry and slowing its progress. Hence, the shari’ah applications in innovative Islamic financial instruments and processes across countries are required to be harmonised, which is the objective that the current thematic workshop attempts to achieve, notably by establishing a representative framework and body of practical and theoretical references to reflect the substantial financial innovative efforts in Islamic finance and their compliance to the shari’ah principles, taking into account all the above mentioned differences.

OBJECTIVES

• To enrich the theory of Islamic financial innovation.
• To highlight the significance of financial innovations in developing Islamic finance industry and discipline.
• To address various issues currently faced by the Islamic finance industry
• To assess the current innovative efforts of the Islamic finance industry

CONFERENCE THEMES

The main topics of the conference include, but not limited to:

• Assessment of existing Islamic financial innovations from shari’ah and practical perspectives.
• Islamic financial innovations proposals.
• Financial stability of the Islamic financial industry [Thematic Workshop].
• Roles of various stakeholders in the Islamic financial innovations.
• Shari’ah scholars and SSBs and their position vis-à-vis Islamic financial innovation.

CONFERENCE LANGUAGES

• English

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITY

Selected papers presented in the conference will be published in a special issue of Islamic Economic Studies/European Journal of Islamic Finance.

PAPER SUBMISSION

Authors are invited to submit their full papers in English, in Word formats. Submissions should be made though online submission system. Click on Online Submission menu to submit.

Any submissions after the 14^th of September 2015 will not be entertained. All the papers’ submission are peer-reviewed and the decision notification is made latest by 21st of September 2015.

Both theoretical and empirical papers are considered by the conference. The authors are required to use the following format:

• Length: 10 to 15 pages, Font Times New Roman, size 12, 1.0 line spacing (single space), A4 paper size, Margins: 1 inch or 2.5cm
• Author(s) names, affiliation, correspondence address, and email address should be provided in title page
• An English abstract should be provided for the English papers, and Arabic and English for the Arabic papers
• Between three to six key words should be mentioned by the author(s)
• Tables and figures should be placed in their appropriate location in the paper
• References should follow APA format

REGISTRATION FEES:

ACCOMODATIONS:

1.  http://www.turismotorino.org/

2.  http://icifi.decathlondmc.it/

Participants who would like to benefit from their residence in Turin to attend the following events:

1) To attend Turin Islamic Economic Forum TIFE 2015: 19th and 20th of October 2015

2) To visit Expo Milano 2015 (hrrp://expo2015.org/en). It is only 30 minutes by train.

JOINTLY ORGANISED BY

Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI, IDB), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The University of Turin, Turin, Italy
Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia