WIBC to introduce an innovative benchmark

In its efforts to enhance the performance and quality of the Islamic banking industry, the World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) announced today that it will be developing a comprehensive performance assessment framework to help Islamic financial institutions assess their ranking and performance vis-à-vis their competitors. Specifically, the WIBC Performance Indicator will form the basis of the annually anticipated WIBC Performance Awards that will be announced at the WIBC Gala Dinner on 2nd December 2015.

The WIBC Leaderboard, a truly innovative performance assessment, will provide rankings of the top Islamic banks and financial institutions based on a variety of robust financial and governance metrics such as asset growth, return on equity, return on assets, disclosures, corporate social responsibility and Shariah governance. The Leaderboard will provide industry participants a visually engaging view of Islamic banks to compare themselves with their peers at the global, regional and national levels across several dimensions. In addition to the individual metrics, banks will also be ranked on the basis of an aggregate score, which forms the apex of the WIBC Leaderboard. This aggregate index holistically ranks entities on the basis of the aforementioned financial and governance measures. The Leaderboard will therefore act as a benchmark for Islamic banks to gauge their performance against the top performing banks in the industry.

The WIBC Leaderboard aggregate scores will be the basis of the WIBC Performance Awards to be awarded to the top global and regional banks at the much-awaited WIBC 2015. In addition to the regional and global awards, the top most performing banks in each country with a developed Islamic banking sector will also be awarded.

The data employed in creating the assessment framework has been sourced from the ICD Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI). Acknowledging the efforts of Thomson Reuters and ICD, Dr. Sayd Farook, Chief Executive Officer of ME Global Advisors – the conveners of WIBC for 22 years – stated, “The unique and much needed performance metric is the first such objective and scientifically verifiable basis for the Islamic banks to rank their respective banks’ performances with each other and will go a long way in developing a competitive yet healthy Islamic banking sector globally. I would like to take this opportunity to laud the efforts of Thomson Reuters and ICD for collating reliable and accurate data which have helped ME Global advisors in creating such an imperative performance framework.”

Khalid Al-Aboodi, Chief Executive Officer of ICD, speaks to the pivotal role of the WIBC Leaderboard: “It is exciting to see such innovations taking place in the Islamic banking industry. The changing regulatory and technological landscape of the banking industry in general poses immense challenges for both Islamic as well as conventional banks – and this metric will help banks keep track of their performance, pushing them to converge with the leading banks.”

The first in the series of the WIBC Leaderboard chart shows the return on average assets – ROAA (horizontal axis), return on average equity - ROAE (Vertical axis) and total assets (bubble) of the top 20 global Islamic banks based on assets.

The 22nd annual WIBC 2015 will take place on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd December in Bahrain, the most developed Islamic finance hub in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.

To find out more about WIBC, download the comprehensive brochure at www.wibc2015.cm