Major opportunities with Islamic Finance: Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Dr Azeema Adam

Speaking at opening ceremony of Maldives Islamic Banking and Finance Industry (MIBFI) conference on Wednesday, Chief Guest of the ceremony, MMA Governor Dr Azeema Adam said that Islamic finance models were being successfully implemented all over the world and that the start of Islamic financing in Maldives looked promising for the future of Maldives finance industry.

“Islamic finance provides solutions to problems in conventional financing models. It is therefore something that needs to be developed in Maldives. There is room for development [with Islamic finance] in Maldives as well,” said Dr Azeema.

She said that discussions and new ideas were needed to develop Islamic financing and noted the need for future plans to do so.

The governor noted the geographical distribution of Maldives as the major obstacle to providing banking services to all citizens of the country. She said that they had not been able to cover all areas of the country as Maldives was distributed into hundreds of islands, and because it wasn’t feasible to establish a bank in each and every island.

She said that the solution to the problem was in applying modern innovative principles in providing banking services, and called out to financial industry to adopt such principles in providing banking services to the remaining islands.

“Banking services can be widened to the whole country through innovative thinking. Financial industry should, too, look to expand services through modern ideas and philosophy,” she said.

Organized by UTO EduConsult, the conference is being attended by both Maldivian and international financial institutions.