Tribune News Network
Doha
The ninth Doha Islamic Finance Conference, which was held in Doha on Tuesday, discussedfintech that focuses on digital transformation and its application in Islamic finance.
It was held under the patronage of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry was the official sponsor. It had Dukhan Bank as the strategic partner, the General Department of Endowments at the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs as the diamond sponsor and Qatar Financial Center, Damaan Islamic Insurance Company (Beema), and Konya Real Estate Company as silver sponsors.
Bait Al Mashrua Finance Consultations, in cooperation with the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University, and the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, organized conference.
During the scientific sessions of the conference, the four main themes were discussed to cover the topics: “Islamic Finance in the World of Metaverse”, “RegTech and SupTech in Islamic Finance”, “Cross-border Finance and its Impact on Islamic Finance”, and “Sustainability in Digital Finance”, this was done through the working papers presented by the participating scholars, academics and specialists, in addition to the discussions and interventions that enriched the topics of the conference.
At the end of the conference, the conferees extend their sincere thanks to the State of Qatar for their generous sponsorship of the conference, as well as to the sponsors and the organizers for their support and efforts in order to make the conference a successful event that achieved its goals.
After presenting and discussing the four themes the conference concluded a set of objectives and recommendations:
1. Financial transactions in the virtual world with underlying blockchain technology do not, in principle, conflict with the rulings of Islamic jurisprudence, when the guidelines related to contract and the transfer of ownership are adhered to in what people consider valuable wealth in the forms of virtual assets or cryptos, as well as the contract shall has its pillars and conditions, and shall be free from the legal impediment or legal violations.
2. To control financial transactions in the world of metaverse, it is necessary to adhere to contractual, legal and ethical controls, and special controls related to contracts so that their effects are real, and that their place is something real, even if it is not tangible, in addition to precise technical controls to prevent all types of crimes related to honor, money and privacy.
3. Islamic banks are urged to leverage metaverse technology to expand into new markets and sectors in order to increase their growth opportunities. They are also advised to adopt regulatory technology applications to enhance transparency and compliance, and improve their overall performance, enabling them to achieve greater competitiveness.
4. Urges the endowment institutions to create virtual spaces for the endowment to introduce it, its history, its roles, and everything related to it in theory and practice, and to arrange global dialogues about developing its tools and activating its products through these spaces.
5. Islamic endowment institutions should be encouraged to integrate metaverse-based solutions into their operations to streamline the collection and management of endowment funds with transparency and high efficiency. The effective use of technology can enhance the chances of achieving the goals of endowment and social financing institutions.
6. Scholars and practitioners should intensify cooperation to design virtual products and services that comply with Islamic law. This will accelerate the use of technology by Islamic financial service providers and enable joint efforts to create smart applications that provide financial solutions for the Islamic lifestyle as an alternative to usurious applications offered by technology giants.
7. Artificial intelligence techniques and virtual reality applications can be utilized to develop Sharia governance mechanisms in Islamic financial institutions. It’s important to emphasize the need for cooperation between competent authorities to create unified standards for supervisory and control technology in Islamic financial institutions.
8. Islamic financial institutions should consider creating their own virtual ecosystem to introduce Islamic financial products and assets of the Islamic economy and finance. They can also collaborate with educational institutions to provide education and training in this field.
9- Urges further research that focuses on Shariah and legal aspects related to Metaverse for offering suitable solutions that enable the states and institutions to benefit form this novel world.
