03 Jul, 2018
The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) and Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore areas of cooperation in human resource development for Islamic banking and finance.
The MoU was signed by Director General of IRTI, Dr. Humayon Dar, and Director of BIBF, Dr. Ahmed Al-Shaikh, on behalf of their respective organizations, at the BIBF campus in Manama, Bahrain.
Under the provisions of the MoU, IRTI and BIBF will collaborate to undertake joint programs and activities aimed to develop human capital for the Islamic banking and finance sector globally.
Collaboration between the two institutions is coming at a time when IRTI is going through a process of reform under the leadership of its new Director General.
Dr. Dar said IRTI was delighted to partner with BIBF and other centers of excellence to support development of the Islamic financial services industry.
“When IRTI started offering training in the early 1980s, there were virtually no training providers in the then emerging field of Islamic banking and finance, but now a number of training providers have emerged in different parts of the world. This makes our life easier as we now can support such trainers in addition to offering some high-end training services by ourselves,” said Dr. Dar.
The Director General added that IRTI was considering to identify at least four training institutions in the world to be recognized as IRTI-Trusted Centers of Excellence (CoE) in Islamic Banking and Finance. “We would like to explore how BIBF could serve as one of such CoEs,” he said.
The BIBF Director, Dr. Al-Shaikh, said, “I am pleased to have signed this formal agreement between the two organizations, as it is the first such attempt to formalize relationship between the two organizations since they were both set up in 1981.”
Mujtaba Khalid, Head of Islamic Finance Centre at BIBF, said, “We also took this opportunity to discuss how IRTIx, IRTI’s MOOCs Platform, can be used by BIBF for the benefit of all the stakeholders in the industry.”
Prior to the MoU signing ceremony, Dr. Dar and Dr. Al-Shaikh met with His Excellency Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), who endorsed the agreement between the two organizations and hoped that this would be the beginning of an extensive engagement between them for research and training in the field of Islamic banking and finance.
