##ance has held thirty meetings of the network. for smooth functioning of this network, dedicated saarcfinance country cell has been established in member central banks, where the work is supervised by a saarcfinance coordinator with support from an alternate coordinator. for effective coordination with ministries of finance of the region, one saarcfinance focal point has also been appointed from each country. further, the network has a rotating secretariat which shifts to the member central bank holding the chair, rotating annually in an alphabetical order. during the 29th group meeting held on 9th october 2014, the saarcfinance chair was shifted to state bank of pakistan. bis central bankers ’ speeches honorable chairman, 6. i will now proceed to a presentation of our activities. in doing so, i will take the liberty to present our progress of the past few years since it has been a while that the saarc chairman has been invited to this forum, to be precise since 2013. 7. as a part of its core objectives of information sharing and sharing of expertise, the network holds regular staff exchange programmes. these programmes provide an excellent opportunity to the officials of the member central banks to learn from each other ’ s experience and expertise. since 2013, the network has facilitated around 35 staff exchange and training programmes. to facilitate information sharing, a number of regular and non - regular publications and other documents, especially on policy issues, are exchanged among the member institutions. similarly, the network arranges seminars, workshops and symposiums on regular basis. for example since 2013 ten seminars and three governors ’ symposiums have been organized. the subjects of these programs cover varied topics. to name a few : monetary policy framework, central banking operational procedures, banking supervision, currency management, internal audit, and human resource management. similarly, the network has initiated a scholarship scheme for capacity building of the officials of saarcfinance members. this is a relatively newer initiative and so far 5 officials have been awarded scholarships for phd and masters programmes. 8. to further facilitate information sharing, every member central bank has created a web folder on their official websites. the network has its own official website, which provides an informed platform to all members for disseminating important information contents. furthermore, a saarcfinance portal has also been created which serves as a powerful tool to retain institutional memory of our network. the portal enables saarcfinance central banks to share experiences and hold online discussions on issues of mutual interest.

in their regulatory framework, and adoption of these standards in other countries will pave the way not only for shariah compliance but also product innovation. in addition, the central banks / regulatory agencies monitoring the performance of islamic financial institutions also need to establish their own shariah board for guiding them in formulation of policies and rules as well as for resolution of conflicting shariah opinions. vigilance and oversight of the supervisor. as in any conventional bank, the role of the supervisor is critical in ensuring smooth functioning of the institutions. the key element of shariah supervision is existence of a mechanism that ensures that the islamic financial system continues to remain viable and growing without compromising the principles of shariah. this leads me to share with you the experience of pakistan in the area of islamic banking. managing corporate governance in pakistan ’ s ifis is critical given the surge in their assets from rs6. 9 billion in cy02 to rs100 billion by end october, 2006, growing at an average annual rate of above 300 percent. growth in assets was well supported by a sharp increase in deposit base ; which increased from rs5. 0 billion in cy02 to rs70. 0 billion ( annualized growth rate of over 85 % ) by the end october, 2006. this rapid growth allowed ifis to increase their share in the overall banking industry to around 2. 6 percent. 3 positioning itself effectively the state bank of pakistan has established a dedicated islamic banking department ( ibd ) that operates in close coordination with policy and regulatory department and inspection and supervision departments to facilitate ifis development. the ibd coordinates with rest of the sbp and banking industry to provide valuable regulatory guidance related to overall shariah compliance and specific issues / challenges being faced by the islamic banks in pakistan. pakistan has adopted a three tiered, somewhat unique, shariah compliance mechanism and process to ensure a deeper and extensive shariah compliance supervision on an on - going basis. the shariah supervision mechanism consists of three basic elements. shariah advisors for banks undertaking islamic banking, a shariah compliance inspection and a centralized shariah board for the country at sbp. the first is appointment of shariah advisors at each bank undertaking islamic banking operations. the fit and proper criteria of the shariah advisor are determined by sbp. this criterion is, apart from the usual aspects of integrity and honesty, based on a person ’ s qualifications both in terms of education and experience