MANAMA: Top performing Islamic financial institutions from Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are vying for World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) Performance Awards 2018.
Held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and with the strategic partnership of the Central Bank of Bahrain, the 25th WIBC will take place on November 26, 27 and 28 at the ART Rotana Hotel in Amwaj Islands.
A key highlight of the three-day forum will be the WIBC Performance Awards 2018, whereby industry leaders will be recognised for their excellence at the gala dinner on November 27, and the nominees of which have been already announced and can be viewed at wibc2018.com/awards.
Introduced in 2015 and forming the basis of the annual WIBC Performance Awards is the WIBC Leaderboard: a first-of-its-kind comprehensive assessment tool aimed at helping the Islamic finance industry to critically appraise the challenges and growth opportunities that lie ahead.
The WIBC Leaderboard ranks Islamic banks as compared to their key competitors at the global and regional levels, based on various robust financial and governance metrics.
These metrics comprise: financial stability (Total Capital and Tier 1 Capital Ratios, Loan-Loss Reserves (LLR) to Gross Loans Ratio, Loan-Loss Reserves (LLR) to Non-Performing Loans (NPL) Ratio, Non-Performing Loans (NPL) to Gross Loans); Financial Performance (Return on Average Assets (ROAA), Return on Average Equity (ROAE), Cost-to-Income Ratio (CIR), Assets Growth) and Governance and Social Responsibility (Financial Disclosure Index, CSR Disclosure).
In addition to the individual metrics, banks will be ranked on the basis of an aggregate score, which forms the apex of the WIBC Leaderboard.
This aggregate index holistically ranks entities on the basis of the aforementioned financial and governance measures.
The data employed in creating the assessment framework has been sourced from the ICD Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI) and Orbis Bank Focus.
Top performing Islamic financial institutions will be vying for two categories of the awards: One Global Award and Three Regional Awards for each of the following world regions: GCC, Asia and Levant. Currently, top performing Islamic banks vying for the Global Award include: Kuwait Finance House (Kuwait); Al Rajhi Bank (Saudi Arabia); Jordan Islamic Bank (Jordan); Kuwait International Bank (Kuwait); Boubyan Bank (Kuwait); Ahli United Bank (Kuwait); Warba Bank (Kuwait); PT Bank Syariah BNI (Indonesia), Maybank Islamic Berhad (Malaysia) and Dubai Islamic Bank (UAE).
Introduced as part of the second WIBC Leaderboard, the Governance and CSR Award (Corporate Social Responsibility) will be a key award this year, the scores of which will be aggregated as per the CSR Index and the Islamic Finance Development Indicator.
The Governance and Social Responsibility variables are extracted from the Thomson Reuters database.
The innovative 25th edition will also see an award for the Fastest Growing Bank (in terms of asset growth) to recognise an Islamic financial institution that has expanded rapidly over the last year.
Confirmed partners at the WIBC so far include: Casablanca Finance City Authority, Ithmaar Bank, Khaleeji Commercial Bank (KHCB), World Gold Council, Bank ABC, Bank of Khartoum-International, First Energy Bank, Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB), DWF, Al Baraka Banking Group, Thomson Reuters, Path Solutions, Moody’s Investor Service, Emerico, The Perth Mint, WTS Dhruva Consultants, Baker McKenzie, Eiger Trading, Department for International Trade – British Embassy Bahrain, DDCAP, Fitch Ratings, Sadad and GPS.
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