Competition to establish Centre of Excellence for Islamic Finance

29/01/2015 11:52 AST

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is implementing the Financial Inclusion Programme (FIP), sponsored by UK Aid, with the aim to improve access to financial services in Pakistan. The 3rd Challenge Round announced in January 2015 is aimed at promoting Islamic financial services to meet the latent demand for Shari’ah-compliant financial services in Pakistan.

FIP has earmarked GBP 10 million in grants under the Financial Innovation Challenge Fund (FICF) to help the financial sector reach the excluded with use of innovations. Specifically, FICF aims to foster innovations to test new markets, lower cost of delivery, enable systems and procedures to be more efficient and provide new ways of meeting the unmet demand for financial services.

The key objectives of this Challenge round are to establish Islamic finance education and research infrastructure in partnership with leading higher education institutions in Pakistan to serve the Islamic finance industry.

The opportunity is to establish a Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance (CEIF) which offers: Comprehensive set of education, training and research programs for various audience groups; A depository of Islamic finance data, Information, best practices, etc

Strong quality assurance framework;

Partnerships with the industry and buy-in of the key stakeholders;

Best in class governance, management, faculty and technology;

International orientation; and

A knowledge environment that promotes innovation.

Applicants should submit their complete proposal by 20 February 2015. Following a thorough desk review and detailed consultation with applicants by the FICF Secretariat, the applicant institution will develop a finalized business plan that will be presented to the FICF Advisory Committee for approval. The FICF Committee may approve one grant per province based on quality of the proposal to establish CEIF. FICF funds will be disbursed to successful institutions after signing of project documents and in accordance with the work plan thereafter, and regular desk monitoring will be conducted by the Fund Secretariat through periodic reports. Onsite monitoring/inspection may be conducted by the Fund Secretariat, SBP staff and independent consultants, if needed.

All enquiries relating to the application process may be made at ficf@sbp.org.pk.

Pakistan’s Islamic banking industry presently holds a market share of 9.6 percent and 10.4 percent of the total banking sector’s assets and liabilities respectively, with a healthy asset quality and double digit return on equity.

CPI Financial