other, make it increasingly important for our country and its financial system to be equipped with the knowledge and the operational instruments needed to interact with financial systems complying with shari'ah principles. it is interesting to note that in the countries where arab revolts occurred and islamic - oriented political parties are now in charge of government, after the collapse of previous authoritarian regimes, the development of islamic finance is gaining momentum. very recently the egyptian legislative council has adopted a project to issue sukuk. even a cursory look at today ’ s program shows that islamic finance and its interactions with conventional financial practices are a source of numerous intriguing questions. i am therefore confident that the subject will stimulate the interest of participants, and most grateful to the speakers who have accepted to join the 4 panels. the overview of the industry, to which session 1 is devoted, will show that the growth of islamic finance in recent years is one aspect of the increased role being played in the global financial system by a number of emerging economies. this opens up new opportunities for channeling financial resources both to these countries and other markets but it also adds to the complexity of the system, calling for enhanced international cooperation by policymakers and regulators, lest the benefits of a financial system which is dynamic and prone to healthy innovation are jeopardized by instability. in the european context, some additional drivers can be identified : on the demand side, the growing resident muslim community potentially requesting more retail banking services, and on the supply side, an improved know - how on the part of european intermediaries, together with the already mentioned attractiveness of some financial markets for the investment of gulf countries ’ liquidity, and the potential use of islamic finance products to broaden funding sources to finance public debt. the question of public debt financing takes us to the subject of another session – session 3 – where the issuance of sukuk bonds, whose total outstanding volume reached $ 230 billions in 2012, will be discussed, together with their increased role in international capital markets. growing attention is devoted in europe to the possibility of issuing sovereign and corporate sukuk and we are pleased to have as chairperson of this session ms. maria cannata, director general of the public debt, department of the treasury of our ministry of economy and finance. coming to challenges and opportunities in the european framework, which will be discussed in sessions 2 and 4, let me conclude by only mentioning in passing some issues that may bis central bankers ’ speeches inhibit the development of

islamic finance. first, in the field of monetary policy, the eurosystem operational framework is, of course, relying on interest - based instruments. second, in the area of prudential regulation and supervision, all european banks have the obligation to join deposit insurance and / or financial services compensation schemes, whereas, according to the islamic jurisprudence prevailing in various islamic countries, islamic bank “ investment ” deposits ( which follow the “ profit and loss sharing principle ” ) cannot be covered by deposit guarantee schemes. moreover, there exists a prominent issue of corporate governance related to the role of the shari ’ ah boards. in italy for instance the board of a bank is required to take full responsibility for the bank ’ s management decisions, which cannot obviously be “ shared ” with another body such as the shari ’ ah board. let me leave you with these queries trusting that the debate in this forum will shed light on the issues. bis central bankers ’ speeches