The Deloitte Islamic Finance Knowledge Center (IFKC) has signed a Cooperation Agreement with the Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA), an organization supported by Bank Negara Malaysia and Securities Commission Malaysia which promotes leading practices in Islamic Finance training development. The initiative aims to provide Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Islamic Finance Executive Education by having Deloitte IFKC professional training programs benchmarked against best practices and adhere to the highest standards of quality through reviews by international experts around the world.

This collaboration with the FAA complements Deloitte’s existing capacity programs with industry stakeholders. The program strives to enhance opportunities for practitioners in the Middle East and elsewhere to benefit from an international quality assurance framework developed for the financial service industry.

“Our capacity program strategy aims to work diligently and closely with the Islamic finance industry and help diffuse high standards of good practices in all aspects. This program has particular emphasis on quality of professional training and executive education,” said Joe El Fadl, Financial Services Industry leader, Deloitte Middle East.

“In today’s highly dynamic and evolving financial system, establishing business relations to strengthen the financial institutions cannot be overemphasised. FAA enters this significant partnership to reach this goal which supports the agenda in bringing the best practices to the industry at the same time promoting quality learning within the Financial Services Industry”, said Dr. Amat Taap Manshor, Chief Executive Officer of the FAA.

The IFKC and FAA cooperative initiative recognizes the importance of upholding quality learning in Islamic financial service industry. Three main objectives are identified in this partnership:

1. To standardize Quality Assurance and Accreditation ‘QAA’ framework in the Islamic financial service industry.
2. To foster more widespread understanding about QAA in training and executive education, incorporating core local practices, leveraging on our joint expertise and insights.
3. To increase awareness about the opportunities to benefit from participation in capacity building and talent development.

“Teaming up with FAA and other leading industry players is an endorsement of the importance of energizing capacity collaboration among stakeholders and step forward in practice synergies between key markets”, said Dr. Hatim El Tahir, Director of the Deloitte Islamic Finance Knowledge Center. “We are extremely delighted to forge this cooperation agreement with FAA and strive to set a roadmap strategy for quality education in Islamic finance,” Dr. El-Tahir added.