AAOIFI Standards Go Digital With Thomson Reuters

In an unprecedented move in the development of the Islamic finance industry, the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards will be made available online through Thomson Reuters ‘ range of digital information platforms, including Zawya Islamic.

AAOIFI Shari’a standards are approved and developed under the guidance of its Shari’a Board, which comprises the world’s leading Shari’a scholars on Islamic finance and internationally regarded as the ultimate authority on Shari’a for Islamic finance. The standards on accounting, auditing, ethics and governance are approved and developed by AAOIFI Accounting and Auditing Standards Board comprising senior representatives from major Islamic financial institutions, central banks and regulatory authorities, and international accounting and auditing firms. The standards represent the broadest consensus of rules that govern the Islamic finance industry and cover Shari’a, accounting, auditing, governance and ethics.

Adopting AAOIFI standards facilitates harmonisation of Islamic finance practices and assists in enhancing the confidence of users of Islamic financial products and services, and ultimately, leads to further growth of the industry.

Dr Hamed Hassan Merah, Secretary General of AAOIFI said that the intricacies and uniqueness of Islamic finance practices are an important reason for the industry’s own standards. There also exists the need for unifying international standards, to bring about homogeneity in the Islamic finance practices across the markets. By making the standards available online, accessibility to the standards will be greatly improved. AAOIFI firmly believes that this will in turn promote wider adoption of the standards by the international Islamic finance industry, he added.

Dr Sayd Farook, Head of Islamic Capital Markets at Thomson Reuters added that this represents a continuation of the revolution in the Islamic finance knowledge space. Not only does it allow Islamic investors, scholars and practitioners to view and navigate through the standards online, in a digital, classified and structured manner, but also means faster and easier access to these standards anytime and anywhere; and is in line with Thomson Reuters commitment to enhance the accessibility of knowledge within the Islamic finance and economy. Zawya Islamic www.zawya.com/Islamic-financewas one of the many tools that Thomson Reuters launched to achieve all of the above.

The standards consist of:

• 26 accounting standards which give guidance on the presentation of financial accounts for Islamic financial institutions as well as accounting treatment on specific Islamic finance products;
• 5 auditing standards which give guidance on auditing of Islamic financial institutions;
• 7 governance standards which focus on the Shari’a compliance and supervision for Islamic financial institutions; and
• 2 codes of ethics, for employees as well as accountants and auditors of Islamic financial institutions.

Originally published on www.zawya.com