Aly Khorshid
Thoroughly Modern Aly
The world has just been through a major financial meltdown, and there’s almost certainly more to come. But this bland statement ignores the Islamic sector, which weathered the storm almost unscathed, largely due to its strict rules on risk-taking. So surely the world is now beating a path to Islamic banks’ doors? Well, no. And Dr Aly Khorshid knows why. His decades-long study of and participation in Islamic finance and insurance have revealed a machine with a noble purpose but toothless cogs. He sees a nepotistic, inward-looking, male-dominated, ageing club, and is convinced that if reform were to sweep through the boardrooms, equity, fairness and prosperity could come to every corner of the world. And we can only begin to imagine the far-reaching effects that would have. Encourage him.
NEWS
29 march 2010
Harvard speech acclaimed
Dr Aly Khorshid yesterday delivered his speech to Harvard (see details below, 17 March). Details, feedback and conclusions to follow ...
17 march 2010
Dr Aly Khorshid will be speaking on Day II (March 28) of the Ninth Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance, Parallel session D: Social and Corporate Consciousness, 8:30–10 a.m.
On 28 March 2010 Dr Khorshid is due to deliver his speech and present his hugely important paper on reform of the Islamic banking sector. The formal announcement comes on the day that the Co-operative Group announced "record sales and profits" (BBC Business News), a large part of which is due to its finance division. What does this have to do with Islamic banking? As Dr Khorshid has frequently pointed out, there are strong parallels between the "ethical" and Islamic banking sectors, most notably the fact that they both theoretically have "limiting" factors to their businesses: ethical and Shariah, respectively. What the Co-op has done is turned this ethical basis into a business and marketing model – with great success. The contrast with the casino culture of mainstream banking is striking.
It is with this background that Aly will be making his case for the reform of the Islamic banking sector, the administration of which he sees as inward-looking, nepotistic, undynamic and inconsistent over various jurisdictions. His ideas are not particularly radical in the business sense, focusing as they do on transparency, good governance and training; but the way that Islamic banking has evolved has created a more idiosyncratic, organic model which seems to have reached the end of the line.
(Download brochure (pdf) and program (pdf). See also the main Conference website.)
28 february 2010
Dr Khorshid Invited by ex-Malaysian PM to speak at conference on Islamic Finance.
March 2010: Travelling to Harvard University, USA, to talk on cleaning up Shariah banking. Dates to follow.