ITS-2019-Summit-Programme

We are very pleased to welcome you all to the Thirteenth International Takaful Summit. The Afkar Group pioneered the International Takaful Summits in London in 2007. The continuing evolution of Takaful provision in many countries has provided the backdrop for our Summits over the last twelve years. In this Summit we hope to cover the full range of possibilities from tapping global re-insurance capacity to creating financial inclusion through micro-takaful.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have highlighted the critical role of financial inclusion in sustainable development. Fortunately more global actors are getting interested in micro insurance and micro-takaful provision to create financial inclusion. They have started to realise the vital leveraging role of micro Takaful provision for making sustainable funding robust. In this Summit, we bring key participants together to discuss how this can be done in an effective way.

In addition, many stakeholders in the Takaful industry are now feeling that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of risk transfer solutions and are calling for a move back to mutuality and re-booting of the Takaful models. These moves can be helped greatly by developments in technology. In this Summit we have allowed time to capture this debate as it could prove to be a watershed moment for the creating new financial inclusion initiatives.

We continue to deepen our understanding of the kind of insurtech solutions emerging which will challenge traditional ways of Takaful provision and open new vistas for the industry. Again, in the technology space, we explore the challenges posed by cybercrime and the Takaful/insurance solutions that may be required to be offered by providers to enable clients of the industry to effectively mitigate these risks.

There are exciting developments which can assist in the global growth of the Takaful and re-Takaful industry. We have a working Shariah-compliant MGA based solution for the provision of Re-Takaful for large risks by using the capacity of the global reinsurance industry. The London Market is also eying the Takaful market to bridge any shortfall in business resulting from Brexit. The Islamic Insurance Association of London (IIAL) has recently issued guidelines for London market participants who want to issue Shariah compliant solutions. In this Summit, we explore the challenges in the way of realising this potential.

The Thirteenth International Takaful Summit builds on the twelve successful events held in November 2007, July 2008, July 2009, July 2010, July 2011, July 2012, February 2013, February 2104, February 2015, 2016, July 2017 and July 2018.

In the International Takaful Summits we endeavour to enable market participants from all over the world to capture the potential for Islamic Finance and Insurance in the world. At every Summit, we strive to offer robust thought leadership and the most informed platforms and opportunities for our participants to get maximum benefit from this interaction.

We welcome you to the Thirteenth International Takaful Summit and hope that you will become one of our many regular participants and supporters.

M Iqbal Asaria, CBE
Convenor
International Takaful Summit 2019