The Institute hosted 25 students from the banking and insurance department of Hoegeschool Voor Economic Studies, Rotterdam, Holland.

One of the student supervisors Mr Cees Van der Heide, lecturer of Management & Banking, stated: "We have enjoyed your open and informative presentation. For all our students the Islamic concept of banking has enhanced their education in finance and ethics, which is one of the objectives of our annual study trip to London. The students and I have very much appreciated your explanations and have felt honoured to have been your guests."

Additionally, some of the students also expressed pleasure at being enlightened to an alternative to the conventional system that most had not known existed. Due to the interest shown by the students it was decided that the Institute would host students from the school on an annual basis.

• Islamic banking concept and current status - Ghazanfar Adil, IIBI
• Recent developments in the Retail market - Stella Cox, director, The Halal Mutual Investment Company Plc.
• Orientation visit to the Islamic banking unit of ANZ Grindlays bank - Presntation: Short Term & Structured Products conducted by Bart Anlst, Assistant Director Global Islamic Finance & Ali Syedain, Manager Global Islamic Finance
• Accounting standards for Islamic financial Institutions - Prof. Simon Archer, Surrey university
• Development and Marketing of Islamic Financial products - James Hume, Clayton Hume Associates ·
• Recent trends in computing and financial software applications - Khalid Salaria, Citibank
• Discussion of key issues and future trends - James Hume.

4-5 October 1999 - The Development, Marketing & Selling of Islamic Financial Products: A practical seminar and workshop

The Development, Marketing & Selling of Islamic Financial Products 4th - 5th October 99 The seminar was aimed at all management levels involved in the production of Islamic financial products. It provided the thirty attending professionals, from a wide variety of expertise, with an insight into the full product development, marketing and sales processes.

A panel of experts lead discussions, analyzed results, and provided technical input as required.

The panel included:

• Muazzam Ali, panel Chairman and founder and Chairman of the Institute.
• James Hume, Director of Clayton Hume Associates Ltd - workshop & seminar facilitator - Marketing & Sales.
• Michael Clode, partner at the International Law Firm Freshfields - Acceptable structures under the Shariah.
• Peter Fox, Manager Emerging Markets Dept the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - Regulatory Discussions
• Trevor Norman, Director with Volaw Trust & Corporate Services Ltd in Jersey, Channel Islands - Jurisdictional Matters
• Sarah Gooden, senior solicitor at the International law firm Trowers & Hamlins - Legal Matters
• Andrew Henning, Quay Design & Innovations Ltd, specialist In graphic design for marketing and presentational materials and producing client brochures, reports, marketting materials and web sites.

The Panel included: Mr Muazzam Ali, Sheikh Nazim Yacubi, Sheikh Mohamed Elgari and Sheikh Yusuf Talal Delorenzo, Mr David Moran (President of Dow Jones Indexes), Mr Rushdi Siddiqui ( Director DJM).

• To discuss how the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index would enable Islamic Social-ethical investors the same opportunity as Western investors to make informed decisions on the merit of their investment portfolios, as investors around the world do with the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

• Participants were afforded the opportunity to have their questions of matters relating to indexing and Shariah answered by the Panel
• The forum was chaired by Prof. Rifaat Abdel Karim, Secretary General of the Accounting & Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions

The forum was well attended with representatives from the major Islamic institutions in from both the UK and abroad in attendance. They took the opportunity to question the panel over a wide range of topics related to Islamic finance.

The forum provoked interesting debate with the proceedings being covered by British and Middle Eastern Press.

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• to consider the recent developments and outline the future direction of Islamic Funds in Europe
• facilitate a process of communication between those interested in assisting the future development of Islamic banking

• The Challenges and pitfalls of offering Islamic investment products - John Bauer, Marketing Director SAMBA Capital Management International Ltd.

• The Islamic Multi-Investment Fund Family in Luxembourg - Akram Khattab, Manager, Faisal Finance Asset Management and Investment Group Switzerland
• The Rationale behind the development and future aspirations of Al Safa Investment Fund - Mr Stephen Cooke, Director, City Financial Managers and Mr Ibrahim Thompson, STZ.

Mr Hume's presentation highlighted the need for Islamic banks to enhance the ways in which their products are developed, perceived and marketed as a step towards fully utilising the value and demand for these products.

He suggested that the prevailing market forces have resulted in many Islamic products and therefore from a point of view of marketability, are lacking in distinctiveness.