Earlier this year, Bank Negara Malaysia has launched the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), an institute providing internationally recognised certification and programmes with the aspiration to strengthen the pool of specialists in Islamic finance. INCEIF offers an international professional certification programme for Islamic financial practitioners that includes a dedicated module on takaful. This complements Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) and International Centre for Leadership in Finance (ICLIF) in providing adequate training at all levels to the industry players and technical programmes in Islamic finance. In addition, Bank Negara Malaysia has recently announced the Shariah Scholarship Award that is offered to local and foreign candidates to pursue post-graduate studies in the field of Shariah relating to fiqh muamalat (Islamic commercial jurisprudence) in recognised universities as well as to obtain the Certified Islamic Finance Professional offered by INCEIF. The Bank also offers Shariah Research Grant to research organisations and institutions of higher learning, both local and foreign, to undertake research in the areas of Shariah relating to Islamic finance, takaful and the Islamic capital market. All these initiatives are aimed to enhance the pool of talents, knowledge and research capacity in the field of Shariah relating to Islamic banking, takaful and the Islamic capital market. 2  BIS Review 84/2006  Ladies and Gentlemen, The growth and development that have been achieved thus far have provided takaful operators with greater opportunities or avenues to progress, both at domestic and international levels. HSBC Amanah Takaful (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

The takaful industry continues to exhibit good financial results each year, as reflected in the three-fold increase in total assets to RM6.5 billion in June 2006, as compared to RM1.9 billion five years ago. More significantly, average doubledigit growth rate of 18.9% for net contributions of combined family and general takaful in the past three years, demonstrated the high potential of the industry. Whilst sustaining the current pace of development, there still exists high growth prospect for the takaful sector, in view of the large untapped potential, with the market penetration rate recorded at merely 6.1% in June 2006. Ladies and gentlemen, Bank Negara Malaysia has laid down a number of initiatives to further enhance the competitiveness and growth momentum in the development of the takaful industry. These initiatives emphasised on enhancing operational efficiency, strengthening corporate governance and risk management as well as improving the market practices and consumer awareness. All players need to capitalize on these initiatives for the takaful industry to achieve sustainable success and unleash the potential gains of the Islamic finance in Malaysia and abroad. Allow me to share some significant developments that may shape the future direction of the takaful industry moving forward. Firstly, as the prudential framework evolves towards a predominantly principle-based and riskbased regulatory approach, there will be a greater emphasis on risk management, corporate governance and transparency so as to maintain investor confidence and public trust.