IV Islamic Finance and Investment Forum was held within the framework of international exhibition Moscow Halal Expo 2013. Leading experts in theory and practice of Islamic finance organized their workshops during the forum. Rashid Nizameev, CEO of Amal finance house, told of his experience in creation and promotion of an Islamic financial company in Russia with the big audience. He elaborated on the advantages of the model of Amal for the economy and society as a whole, as well as for the individual consumer. In particular, he mentioned the following points: funding only activities that are not frowned upon by public morals, financing only real sector of economy, and acquisition of real assets.

In his speech, Mr. Nizameev also shared his thoughts on some of the problems that slow down the development of Islamic finance in Russia, among them lack of Islamic infrastructure and trained professionals in this field, relative expensiveness of Islamic financial services and others. In the end of his speech, CEO of Amal expressed his optimism in the idea of building unique Islamic financial model. “We have an opportunity to build fair economic system that would prevent financial crises and abolish improper reallocation of funds. We have positive experience. We take a positive view and try to use all available means.”

Another remarkable workshop was organized by Alberto Brunoni, independent consultant on international finance, founder and chairman of ASSAIF—which is the oldest Islamic finance consultancy in Europe. The audience readily took part in discussion of a still fairly new and underdeveloped topic of Islamic insurance in Russia. The speaker explained the concept of Islamic insurance—takaful—in layman’s terms, highlighting the major differences between Islamic insurance model and its traditional analog, shared examples and told of the current state of takaful industry in the world.

The participants of the workshop did not want to let the guest go, asking him numerous questions on the different aspects of the topic and Islamic finance in general. “Islamic finance is not just for Muslims—it’s for all those who have good heads on their shoulders. This area is now quickly developing in Europe. Everyone in the world can practice Islamic finance and you too can start today, right now,” said Mr Brunoni, and the audience could not but agree with him.

RMC press service based on materials from halalexpo.org