In such a transaction, banks generally purchase the asset to be financed, and then sells it to the customer at a mark-up, to be paid on a deferred basis. 6  IFSB - Islamic Financial Services Board; IDB – Islamic Development Bank; AAOIFI - Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions; IIFM - International Islamic Financial Market. 7  The Bahrain Monetary Agency was the primary sponsor in establishing the Liquidity Management Centre. 4  BIS Review 147/2008  Financial Services Board Summit, Singapore's plan to set up a facility to provide Shariahcompliant regulatory assets to these financial institutions as part of our efforts to promote the growth of Islamic Finance in Singapore. The sukuk structure is based broadly on the Al-Ijarah structure, or the sale-and-leaseback of an underlying property. Sukuk issued by the facility will be given equal regulatory treatment as Singapore Government Securities, or SGS, and returns will be tied to the risk-free yield of SGS of equivalent tenor. The facility is open to all financial institutions that plan to or are currently carrying on Shariah-compliant financial services in Singapore. We are issuing on a reverse enquiry basis, which means we can size and time the issuance according to the needs of the financial institutions. A number of financial institutions have already expressed interest and we expect the first issue to take place at the start of next year. We invite eligible and interested financial institutions to approach MAS as we work towards a formal launch.

This is associated with the adaptation to a more demanding regulatory framework that involves higher requirements in respect of own funds and liquid assets, along with other additional demands derived from the new resolution regulations. These regulatory changes, which have been introduced globally, are the response by the economic authorities to the shortcomings highlighted by the international financial crisis. Their essential aim is to increase banking systems’ resilience in the face of adverse shocks and to prevent taxpayers from having to bear the cost of the resolution of ailing banks. The first raft of reforms, known as Basel III, which was designed between 2010 and 2011, focused on increasing the volume of bank capital and improving its quality, and on the introduction of new minimum liquidity requirements and counterparty exposure limits, and of macroprudential instruments, such as the so-called countercyclical capital buffer. All these requirements will be effective, practically in their entirety, in late 2019. Spanish banks have already largely adapted to these new requirements, with their liquidity and capital ratios currently standing above the minimum levels stipulated. In any event, as 6/8  regards the CET 1 and Tier 1 solvency ratios, their aggregate levels – albeit with significant dispersion across banks – are, as at March 2018, low compared with those of the euro area banking systems, according to data from the European Banking Authority. This once again highlights the need for Spanish banks to adopt capital-strengthening strategies. With regard to the solvency regulatory measure, which does not take into account risk weightings, i.e.