18 November 2015, Dubai: 7th World Islamic Retail Banking Conference commenced yesterday at Taj Dubai Hotel, Dubai – UAE gathering global Islamic retail bankers, regulators, Shariah scholars and retail banking technology experts from around the world to focus on the trends, challenges, issues and strategies for the industry.

Musa A.Z.Shihadeh, CEO & GM at Jordan Islamic Bank, inaugrated the conference with his keynote presentation on Shariah compliance in Islamic retail banking, which was followed by the exclusive session from Marwan Abouzeid, Core Banking Team Lead – BSG - Misys elaborating on the need to adopt agile solutions in Islamic Banks.

Key highlights of the day included a CEO roundtable, which was moderated by Asad Batla, Head of Consumer Banking - Bank Nizwa. CEOs from Jordan Islamic Bank, Tameer Micro Finance Bank and University Bank & University Islamic Financial came together to discuss the impact of global macro trends on the retail banking industry, in this roundtable.

Rajashekara V. Maiya, Associate VP and Global Head of Product Strategy & Pre-Sales at Infosys Finacle engaged the audience with a presentation titled “Digitization is the Future for Islamic Banks”. The need to integrate/connect distribution channels to optimize efficiencies, was explained elaborately in a exclusive session by Shaker F. A. Zainal, Regional Head of Distribution - Mashreq PSC.

In a joint presentation conducted by Asad Batla and Nadeem Hussain, Founder, CEO and President at Tameer Micro Finance Bank, “ Emerging Segments in Retail Banking” were explained which included the journey of micro banking, new age technology in banking and the realm of Fintech.

The Annual Open Fatwa Session, focusing on integrating the Sharia essentials of Islamic modes during the product structuring process was joined by CEOs and Sharia Heads from Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dar Al Sharia and Mashreq Al Islami. The discussion was moderated by Khurram Hilal, MD, Head of Group Islamic Products at Standard Chartered Saadiq.

Other sessions saw experts from Government of Dubai, NCB Capital, Standard Chartered Saadiq and Bank Al Jazira engage the audience through panel discussion and presentations focusing on developing Islamic interbank market and Sharia compliance gaps in the industry.

Tamas Erni, Managing Partner at Loxon Solutions, elaborated retail risk management in the digital world in his presentation, while business drivers of a bank’s digital investment was elaborated by Hisham Hammoud, Chief Business Officer and Executive VP at Ajman Bank.

The conference sponsors and exhibitors presented the opportunity to witness unique solutions and services customised only for the banking industry, thus enabling them to directly interact with the market, understand and analyse the need and explore opportunities and solutions for smooth functioning of the Islamic retail banking operations. Misys Financial Software partnered with the conference as the Platinum sponsor, while Infosys Finacle and Loxon partnered as the Gold Sponsor and Associate Sponsor respectively. 3i Infotech, IE business School and Appello Banking Software joined WIRBC as Exhibitors and RTS Global Partners was the Official Family Business Partner.

The first day ended with Islamic Retail Banking Awards 2015, organised by Cambridge IF Analytica and hosted by Fleming Gulf. The awards celebrated the achievements and recognised the contributions of individuals and institutions in the Islamic retail banking and finance industry

Today, the second day of the conference, will witness relevant case-studies, intriguing panel discussions such as the Guru IT Panel, titled as “IT and Innovation Dynamics” and many other dedicated sessions on the latest trends and future potential of Islamic retail banking sector, which will be joined by experts from Bank Nizwa, Bank Alfalah Limited, Noor Bank, Emirates Islamic, Meezan Bank, Bank of Khartoum and Standard Chartered Bank Dubai among others.