Learn the trade and not the tricks, says PCEO

INCEIF :Islamic finance professionals are urged to learn the trade and not to waste their time learning the tricks of the trade.

INCEIF's President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Agil Natt stressed that INCEIF was established with the objective of developing Islamic finance professionals and experts in order to address the human capital needs of a rapidly expanding industry.

"We sought to do this by launching the world's first structured programme in Islamic finance, the Chartered Islamic Finance Professional programme in 2006, and later the PhD in Islamic finance in January 2008 and six months later, the Masters in Islamic finance," he explained in his welcoming speech at the opening of INCEIF's inaugural Islamic Finance, Theory and Practice Training Programme.

He said INCEIF faced a rather daunting task when the Islamic finance discipline was still nascent, standards were yet being developed, the different mazhabs and jurisdictions had different interpretations and regulations were also in their pubescent stage.

The training programme, that starts today and will end on 18 November, will explicate the critical areas of Islamic finance including issues of Shariah application and compliance, Islamic banking and capital market, Takaful and wealth management. The programme will also cover the practical challenges affecting Islamic finance in the global environment. Apart from the Malaysians, participants include delegates from Bahrain. Sudan and Australia.

"This training programme forms an integral part of what we wish to accomplish," he said adding that INCEIF planned to hold more of those sessions in other parts of the world, especially in the regions where INCEIF's partners existed.