rasheed mohammed al maraj : global financial architecture – challenges for islamic finance keynote address by his excellency rasheed mohammed al maraj, governor of the central bank of bahrain, at the 7th islamic financial services board summit 2010, manama, 4 may 2010. * * * your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen : it is a great honour for the central bank of bahrain to be invited to host the 7th islamic financial services board summit. on behalf the central bank i should like warmly to welcome you to the kingdom of bahrain. to those of you who are returning to bahrain, it is a great pleasure to have you with us again. to those of you who are visiting bahrain for the first time, we hope your visit will be a pleasant one and that it will be the first of many. i would like to congratulate the organisers for their efforts in putting together such a strong programme and for ensuring that we will hear from some extremely distinguished and knowledgeable speakers over the course of the next two days. i would also like to express my appreciation to the sponsors without whose support this summit would not be possible. as one of the founding members of the ifsb the central bank of bahrain has been a strong supporter of its work, as both a standard setting organisation and as an organisation that promotes greater awareness of islamic finance. it has been particularly pleasing to see the ifsb go from strength to strength and for its membership to expand to now include regulatory and supervisory authorities, international financial institutions, as well as market players and professional firms operating in almost 40 jurisdictions. great credit must go to professor rifaat for his role as secretary - general in ensuring the ifsb ’ s continued development. this will be professor rifaat ’ s final year in office and i am sure you will all join me in acknowledging his enormous contribution to the development of islamic finance and the strong legacy he leaves at the ifsb. under his leadership it has become established as the leading forum for the islamic financial industry. the theme of the 7th annual summit is “ global financial architecture : challenges for islamic finance ”. this theme is particularly timely. as the dust settles after the financial crisis it has become increasingly clear that there will be no return to business as usual for the financial industry. in the advanced economies there is a determination to make sure that there is no risk of a repeat of the crisis and an acceptance that in practice this means financial institutions will be smaller and less profitable than in the past. governments

holders, who bear many of the risks of shareholders, but without the same control rights that a shareholder would enjoy. this means that ensuring high standards of corporate governance is even more important for islamic financial institutions than for their conventional peers and it is perhaps the single most important lesson that the crisis has for the islamic financial industry. with that thought, let me conclude by congratulating the organisers on having assembled such a distinguished team of panelists and discussants. i am sure the next two days will produce many new ideas and a lot of interesting debate and i wish every success to the 7th summit of the islamic financial services board. thank you for your attention.