Sharia banks need common risk management system

The Islamic finance industry needs a common risk management system to police institutions now guided by voluntary standards and ill-fitting conventional rules, a banker and an asset manager said on March 04. The sharia finance industry is a global reservoir of $1 trillion of assets but regulatory standards differ across jurisdictions in the absence of a central governing body.
-- Calls for a unified Islamic risk management practice
-- National regulators must back system
Upheavals in global financial markets have put the supervision of banks under the microscope, reinforcing the fragmented structure of Islamic regulation and the need for more safeguards.
"We still dont have a common risk management practice across the whole industry," Islamic Bank of Asia chief executive Vince Cook told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference. "Its quite difficult to squeeze the Islamic industry into the conventional regulatory framework. There are certain risks which a conventional regulatory framework doesnt necessarily cover."
Singapore-based Islamic Bank of Asia is backed by DBS, Southeast Asias biggest bank by assets. Standard-setting agencies such as the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions and the Islamic Financial Services Board regularly issue guidelines but cannot compel compliance by countries and financial institutions.
Some Islamic banks are adopting capital standards based on Basel II, a set of guidelines prepared by a committee that is backed by central bank governors of industrialised nations.
But religious scholars have said the Basel standards need to be adjusted to accommodate the peculiarities of sharia banking. Unlike conventional financing, Islamic banking argues for a fair distribution of profit and loss and often takes the form of profit-sharing agreements.
"The structure of the agreements that Islamic banks follow is quite different from the structure of conventional products," said Mohammad Shoaib, chief executive of Pakistans Al Meezan Investment Management.
"When youre lending in an Islamic structure, most of your agreements are based on risk and reward sharing, they are not simple lending and taking interest on that. Any common Islamic risk management practice should be applied globally with state backing, Cook said. "Its got to be driven with the same level of clout and commitment as happens with Basel II," he said. "Youve got to have a buy-in from all the national regulators."