This ought to be no different today. Modern day Shariah scholars, as with all of us here, must likewise continuously up-skill ourselves. After all, as the Islamic finance industry grows and evolves, so will the complexity of Shariah issues. A sound understanding of other domains – such as of accounting, law, economics and technology – is necessary to strengthen and bolster comprehensive and practical ijtihad. This pursuit of various spectrums of knowledge was the basis for the great achievements of Islamic scholars in the past. It is hard to think of a scholar who was the master of only one discipline, be it Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd or Ibn Khaldun. In fact, their mastery of knowledge crossed multiple subject matters, from theology to philosophy, mathematics and the sciences. With an expanded breadth of capabilities and knowledge, the Shariah fraternity will be in a credible position to influence and shape the future direction of the industry. The recent launch of the Certified Shariah Advisors (CSA) and Certified Shariah Practitioner (CSP) programmes demonstrates our commitment towards shaping and nurturing high quality Shariah talent locally and internationally. The professional certification programmes will raise the bar for the industry by elevating the professionalism of Shariah advisors and upskilling competencies in the community. To support the noble initiative by the Association of Shariah Advisors in Islamic Finance, and to further deepen talent capacity, Bank Negara Malaysia will make the certification a pre-requisite for the appointment and re-appointment of Shariah Committee members.

Why and how supervision and resolution authorities should work more closely with one another Let me now turn to the way in which the two completed pillars of Banking Union, namely supervision and resolution, could become more consistent with one another and work more closely together. Cooperation between the SRB and the ECB does exist, and is formalised by a Memorandum of Understanding. This provides for ex-ante cooperation in calm times, and close cooperation in early intervention and resolution phases. Thanks to this tremendous ongoing preventive work conducted by the SSM and the SRB, and to continued efforts from banking institutions, recovery plans have significantly improved in recent years. Page 4 sur 5 Beyond the current areas of cooperation, which could still be enhanced in practice, greater coordination on policy issues appears desirable. In particular, policy decisions that pertain to own funds have a very concrete impact on European banks’ competitiveness, and therefore on the level playing field with foreign banks. Here, we must find a trade-off between safety and competition issues, with efforts needed on both sides. For instance, the SSM could further consider a risk-based approach rather than a flat-rate approach to estimate post-resolution Pillar 2 requirements. This entails a need to take into account a forward-looking approach and the expected risk reduction that follows a resolution. This should be acknowledged in the calibration of external minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL): banks are not at the same stage today as they were seven years ago.