18 Jun, 2023
The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) formally launched the Islamic Finance Country Assessment exercise for the Republic of Kazakhstan. The holistic assessment, which utilizes the IsDB Institute’s Islamic Finance Country Assessment Framework (IF-CAF), aims to help Kazakhstan achieve greater integration of Islamic finance into its mainstream national development agenda.
The IF-CAF is a diagnostic toolkit developed by the IsDB Institute together with its consulting partner, Islamic Finance Advisory and Assurance Services (IFAAS). IF-CAF aims to evaluate the Islamic finance ecosystem in an IsDB Member Country by implementing a transparent and reliable assessment methodology with a set of specific qualitative and quantitative assessment criteria. The assessment results enable the identification of any gaps and impediments to achieving a sustainable Islamic finance industry in the assessed country and accordingly generate a set of tailored recommendations for the IsDB Group to assist the country in creating the enabling infrastructure in order of priority needs of that specific market.
The framework was launched for pilot testing in IsDB Member Countries in September 2022. The exercise in Kazakhstan follows an earlier one undertaken for the Republic of Uzbekistan in March 2023.
The exercise began on 1 June 2023 with consultative meetings and focused discussions with key stakeholders of the Islamic finance industry in Kazakhstan. The discussions delved deeply into the various Islamic finance ecosystem components including the legal framework, regulatory and supervisory guidelines, market infrastructure, liquidity management services, financial safety nets, Shari’ah governance, and other business and ancillary services critical for the soundness, stability, and effective development of the Islamic finance industry.
During the assessment in Kazakhstan, IF-CAF-related meetings were held with the leadership and senior officials from the following organizations:
The IsDB Institute will use the inputs gathered from the IF-CAF exercise to generate a tailored report for the Republic of Kazakhstan that will provide an assessment of the current state of Islamic finance development in the country, as well as suggest evidence-based policy recommendations to help Islamic finance gain further traction.
