The 6th edition of the conference started with a special feature; Fast Fire Session with industry expert, Irfan Siddiqui, President & Chief Executive Officer - Meezan Bank ltd., the feature of this session was; 20 very fast ‘Yes‘/‘No‘ questions were addressed to the CEO.

The Annual CEO Roundtable, Regional Growth vs Global Opportunities, focused on understanding the scope for optimizing regional growth and global opportunities to select correcting strategies. This exclusive panel also addressed the need for greater operational efficiency and innovation to improve financial performance of Islamic retail banks.

This dedicated session, moderated by Hussein Al Sayed, Business News Anchor - CNBC Arabia, saw participation from industry peers such as
Tooran Asif, Chief Executive Officer - Mashreq Al Islami
Mohamad Safri Shahul Hamid, Senior Managing Director & Deputy CEO - CIMB Islamic
Irfan Siddiqui, President & Chief Executive Officer - Meezan Bank ltd.

Fadi Yazbeck, Product Manager, T24 for Islamic Banking, - Temenos , explained how despite high growth rates Islamic banks still face higher profitability challenges, and how efficient system integrated processes and operations can minimise such limitations. Temenos is the Gold Sponsor for this event along with ITS Global Financial Solutions.

Another yearly highlight at the conference, the Annual Open Fatwa Session, featured a fishbowl discussion, where renowned global Shariah scholars and experts such as Dr. Muhammad Qaseem, Country Head Fatwa & Sharia Supervision Board - Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan; Dr Muhammad Al-Bashir Muhammad Al-Amine, Group Head Shariah Assurance Dept. - Bank Al Khair; Momin Hyat, Head – Shariah Governance & Compliance - Mashreq Al Islami and Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Executive Vice President & Head, Product Development & Shariah Compliance - Meezan Bank Limited, explored opportunities for global markets within the scope of Shariah compliance.

Mashreq Al Islami is the Silver Sponsor of this conference. On asking about their participation at the conference and the bank's aim for further growth of Islamic retail banking, Tooran Asif, CEO of Mashreq Al Islami commented, “We are delighted to once again participate in this conference that truly brings together the industry’s experts. At Mashreq Al Islami, we continue to deliver on our promise, which is to be customer centric in both our products and services. We are unique in our approach, whereby it is Sharia’h Compliant propositions and innovative at the same time.”

The Guru IT Panel, titled as From “Push” to “Pull”, elaborated on changing methods of customer engagement from “push” to “pull” across the physical and virtual worlds in the banking industry. This panel was joined by Dr Fraz Chisti, Chief innovation Officer - Noor Bank; Rashed Alothman, CIO - Bank AlBilad; Tariq Madani, Senior Manager: E-Channel
- Sharjah Islamic Bank; Fiaz Mansha, EVP and Head of IT - Gatehouse Bank and Fadi Yazbeck, Product Manager T24 for Islamic Banking from Temenos Group AG.

Tamás Erni, Managing Partner - lOXON Solutions Ltd ( Associate Sponsor), focused on the banking basics such as use of SLA-s in increasing customer satisfaction , developing channel independent loan underwriting practices , increasing margins by the use of credit scoring and more.

Tomorrow, the second day of the conference will witness relevant case-studies, intriguing panel discussions such as the Guru Retail Panel, titled as “One-Stop Financial Solution Provider and many other dedicated sessions on the latest trends and future potential of Islamic retail banking sector, which will be joined by panelists from Bank Nizwa, Al Rajhi Bank, Standard chartered Bank (Pakistan) Ltd, Bank Alfalah limited, Ajman Bank, Bank Sohar, Oman, Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) and Eiger Trading Advisors ltd.


Case Studies on Africa: The Next Frontier will be conducted by Raheel Ahmed - Regional Head, Retail Clients, MENAP, EUROPE & Global Head Islamic Retail Clients at Standard Chartered Bank, while Shaker F. A. Zainal, Regional Head of Distribution, Mashreq Bank , will elaborate on Achieving Distribution excellence in a window Model.

Along with a presentation on driving innovation – processor’s role in Islamic banking growth, by AMR Mohamed Abdel Fattah, Strategic Business Initiatives Senior Manager at Emerging Markets Payments- EMP( Associate Sponsor), many more speaker presentations, relevant case-studies, intriguing panel discussions from Kuwait Turkish participation Bank Dubai Ltd, Islamic Finance Council UK, Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan, Jordan Islamic Bank, and the bronze sponsors of the conference - Diasoft and Monitise.