Bahrain’s Islamic Regulator AAOIFI Issues 7 Financial Standards

Bahrain’s Accounting & Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions issued seven Islamic standards for the industry, the regulator’s Secretary General Khaled Al Faqih said today.

The guidelines will govern financial rights or the disposal of rights, bankruptcy and liquidity management, Al Faqih said at a news conference in the capital Manama. The agency also listed rules for capital and investments protection, investment agency contracts, profit calculations from investment instruments, and the right to terminate legal contracts due to fraud, he said.

AAOIFI, which has 200 members, sets accounting and auditing standards that are used in Bahrain, the Dubai International Financial Centre, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Sudan and Syria, according to its website. It has issued 48 Shariah guidelines and regulators in countries including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Australia and South Africa base some of their rules on AAOIFI.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dana El Baltaji in Dubai at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net