IFN Turkey Forum kicks off in Istanbul

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

The IFN Turkey Forum 2018 kicked off on Monday in Istanbul in partnership with the Borsa Istanbul -- Turkey's stock exchange market.

The one-day event focused on main topics on participation banking and the future of finance in Turkey.

In his opening remarks, Murat Cetinkaya, the CEO of Borsa Istanbul, said: "We are focusing our efforts, as well as supporting projects on strengthening the country's regulatory and asset class position in global Islamic capital markets."

The officials and representatives from leading institutions of the Islamic finance sector, such as REDMoney Group, IFSB, World Bank, International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, IIFM, and INCEIF participated at the Forum.

The forum discussed topics including the development of capital markets, participation banking, issuance of "sukuk" certificates and Islamic asset management.

"By 2025, the Turkish participation banking sector is expected to hold a 15 percent market share from 5.1 percent at the end of 2015, when total assets of participation banks reached 120.3 billion Turkish liras ($18.2 billion)," according to the IFN website.

The next IFN Forum will take place in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Oct. 1.