Women in Islamic finance: Zeti Akhtar Aziz
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1 March, 2011Islamic Investor, March 2011
The first chief executive of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation, the new post-financial crisis body designed to ensure short-term liquidity in Islamic finance, has been appointed. Mahmoud AbuShamma, previously head of HSBC Amanah Coverage in Dubai, will take the top role.
The appointment marks a crucial step in the development of a significant new multilateral. Legally founded on October 10, it has 14 founding shareholders: 12 central banks or monetary authorities, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Turkey; and two multilaterals, the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector.
It will issue short-term Shariah-compliant financial instruments in order to help with efficient liquidity management for Islamic banks, particularly around cross-border transactions. It came about as part of a collective effort by the Islamic financial industry globally to take a close look at the financial crisis and work out what had been learned from it. It will issue in a range of major reserve currencies, with the distribution of the Islamic paper through agencies licensed by the shareholders – that is, banks approved by the central banks and monetary authorities.
Mahmoud’s job at HSBC was to take charge of the bank’s key Islamic relationships, which varied from governments to high net worth individuals as well as banks and corporations. Appointing a coverage man to such a position is an interesting move, and perhaps reflects the delicate nature of streamlining the approaches of 12 countries and two powerful multilaterals. He will take a three-year term beginning February 1 2011.
Like so many other pieces of global Islamic infrastructure, IILM will have a head office in Kuala Lumpur, perhaps reflecting the pivotal role that Malaysia’s central bank governor, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, played in setting in up (see profiles in this edition). Indeed, Zeti will be the first chairperson of the governing board, with Yves Mersch, governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg, as her deputy. Malaysia is trying to push through legislation that will give IILM special status, privileges and immunities.
The board has also announced the scholars who will sit on the IILM’s Shariah committee, all of them on three-year terms. They include some very familiar names who serve widely on international Shariah boards, most notably Malaysia’s Mohd Daud Bakar and Saudi Arabia’s Mohamed Ali Elgari (but not, notably, Bahrain’s Nizam Yaquby), alongside Ahmed Ali Abdalla Hamad, Cecep Maskanul Hakim, Umar Bashir Aliyu and Waleed Bin Hady Al Mullah.
