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Index / Activities / Courses and seminars / Islamic finance in post-Brexit Europe: Challenges and opportunities outside of the United Kingdom
Islamic finance in post-Brexit Europe: Challenges and opportunities outside of the United Kingdom
November 11, 2016From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
MADRID
Pavilion 2 at the Madrid Fairgrounds (IFEMA) (address: Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I, s/n).
From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
You must register in advance to attend.
The round table discussion will be held in English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation.
Round table discussion held as part of Expo Halal 2016, at which the challenges and prospects for developing this sector will be analyzed.
Since the nineties, the United Kingdom has been a pioneer in the development of Islamic finance in Europe. In recent years, at the same time as other European financial markets such as Luxembourg, Paris or Dublin, London has positioned itself as a leader for Islamic finance in the region by establishing six completely Islamic banks (Sharia-compliant) and twenty international banks with business in the field, as well as Islamic investment funds and, last of all, sovereign sukuk bonds issued in 2014, a few months before Luxembourg did so.
To continue the debate which began last year (Islamic finance in Europe, on Oct. 22, 2016), and within the framework of ExpoHalal 2016, the goal of this round table discussion is to analyze the prospects opened up by Brexit for developing Islamic finance in Europe, as well as the implications it might have for both London and European countries like France and Spain.
Those taking part will discuss to what extent the uncertainty and current economic situation are affecting financial activity and Islamic finance in London, and whether this creates new opportunities for developing Islamic financial transactions in other places across Europe. In particular, they will discuss the potential for carrying out investment operations in Spain through or in association with banks from Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, where Islamic banks are beginning to do business.
Participating in the debate will be Pierre-Charles Pradier, a professor of Economics and Finance at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, who will be discussing the ways in which this subject is being watched from Europe and, in particular, from Paris; Radi Hamudeh, Managing Director of the Moroccan Bank of Foreign Trade, who will describe the Moroccan perspective, given the advancements his country has made in setting up Islamic banks over the last two years, and Khaled Zarrugh, president and director of the Advisory Board for Islamic Finance of the Central Bank of Libya, who will be discussing the point of view in Libya, where Islamic finance will also foreseeably be on the agenda in the future, as soon as its political and security-related problems have been resolved. Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator, will moderate the talk.
This round table discussion forms part of a day of conferences on “Islamic Finance and the Halal Industry in Europe: Common areas and meeting points,” organized with the cooperation of the Spanish-Saudi Center of Economics and Islamic Finance, the Halal Institute and ExpoHalal2016.
As part of the supply chain of halal goods and services, accessing Islamic finance has become a factor that causes some to stand out when promoting these goods and services among Muslim communities both inside and outside of Europe.
Sign up by sending an e-mail message to confirmaciones@casaarabe.es. Those attending will receive a code for free entrance to the fairgrounds.
Olivia Orozco
Orozco coordinates Casa Árabe’s program in Training and Economics, as well as organizing that area’s activities. She is the main editor of the economic publications by Casa Árabe (finance, business, industrial policy, water, migration, development and economic consequences of conflicts). Ms. Orozco has a PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute of Florence (EUI, 2008), and also earned a Master’s degree in Contemporary Arab Studies from the Georgetown University (MAAS, 2003) and a university degree in Economic Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, 1998). She co-authored the first book in Spanish about Islamic Economics and Banking (AECID, 1999) and has published articles on this topic, as well as the history of economic thought in the Mediterranean and today’s Arab world economies.
Pierre-Charles Pradier
Pierre-Charles Pradier is a professor of Economics and Finance at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He was the dean of the School of Economics, prior to serving as its vice-rector, and then dean of the National Insurance School (ENAss/CNAM). He is the coordinator of the Chair on Financial Ethics and Rules (http://cenf.univ-paris1.fr/) and the educational programs of LabEx RéFi (http://cenf.univ-paris1.fr/). He has had many different studies published on the economics of risk from a historical perspective, as well as financial regulation. In addition to other publications, he is the author of two books, Le risque en théorie économique (Risk in Economic Theory, published by La Découverte) and Financial Regulation in the EU from Resilience to Growth (co-authored with Raphaël Douady and Clément Goulet, currently going to press, Palgrave Macmillan), and he is now writing an essay on the political economics of gambling for La Découverte.
Khaled Zarrugh
Since earning a degree in civil engineering from the University of Oregon in the United States in 1984, Khaled Zarrugh has worked as an engineer in Libya’s public sector and as a consultant in the private sector. He is now the President of the Savings and Real Estate Investment Bank, and the owner of different residential projects and public buildings in several Libyan cities, with 35 branches around the country, as well as being the president and director of the Advisory Board for Islamic Finance of the Central Bank of Libya. He has worked on topics related with Islamic banking since 1991, cooperating with the Dubai Islamic Bank and Al Baraka Group, as well as other Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Lebanon and Turkey.
Radi Hamudeh
With a university degree in Economics, and having earned his doctorate with cum laude honors in Monetary Economics and the Banking Sector, Radi Hamudeh has gained extensive, in-depth experience in directing financial entities. After his time with the Foreign Bank of Spain and Aresbank, where he was the Assistant Managing Director and Director of Branches and Affiliates, he then committed to taking on an innovative project to set up an affiliate bank of the Moroccan group BMCE International in Spain, with a strong calling to do international business and create connections between the Arab world, Spain and Europe. After leading the International Department and Deputy Managing Director’s office, in 2007 he joined the General Management of BMCE International, where his greatest objective was to make the Entity a true reference in the international market and provide support for companies in their internationalization processes. Today, BMCE International has a presence in nearly 50 countries located throughout North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. It manages the international business of about 25,000 customers in Spain and Europe, whose operations are now approaching an annual figure of six billion euros in terms of business volume, ten times more than they amounted to just ten years ago.