AAOIFI Successfully Concludes the First Day of the 20th AAOIFI-IsDB Annual Islamic Banking and Finance Conference

The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) successfully concluded the first day of the 20^th AAOIFI-IsDB Annual Islamic Banking and Finance Conference on Sunday, 2 November 2025, corresponding to 11 Jumada Al Awwal 1447H, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The event commenced with an opening ceremony that featured keynote addresses by H.E. Sheikh Ebrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Chairman, AAOIFI Board of Trustees and H.E. Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, Acting Director General of Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The opening ceremony also included honouring ceremony extended to sponsors and a number of distinguished guests of honour, alongside the official inauguration of the conference exhibition.

As one of AAOIFI's flagship conferences, this event represents a strategic platform to deepen engagement with regulators and key stakeholders from around the world. It aims to continue the high-level multilateral dialogue among leading institutions, towards fostering collaboration and reinforcing partnerships with key stakeholders from the global Islamic finance industry.

During day one of the conference, session deliberations explored a series of priority topics, including efforts related to an impactful dialogue on "Integrating AI in Islamic finance operations and services" (session one).

Session two centred on the role of Islamic finance in AI-driven business and finance environment in which experts examined the transformative potential of artificial intelligence across industries, highlighting both the opportunities it presents and the challenges it may pose for Islamic finance.

The following session tackled the all-important Islamic financial literacy and awareness, as it extends beyond capacity building and highlighted the strategies to elevate Islamic financial awareness and learning beyond its classic role for the next generation of professionals and practitioners. It also explored the way by which technology can bridge the gaps in learning accessibility and how Islamic financial literacy can surpass traditional capacity building initiatives and individual learning.

The day one of the event brought together a physical turnout exceeding 700 participants, in addition to over 900 online participations from around the world. To ensure accessibility and broader participation, all sessions were being streamed live in English and Arabic on AAOIFI's official digital and social media pages.

AAOIFI looks forward to the continuation of the conference on day two, which will cover a host of key issues such entrepreneurship development through Shari'ah compliant MSME financing and creation of integrated value chains and ecosystem, as well as Salam and Istisna and application of these modes of finance for economic growth and development. The session will feature discussion on practicality considerations, market reality and accounting challenges.z

This year's edition of the conference was supported by a number of key stakeholders including major partnership with Jumhouria Bank (Libya), Kuwait Finance House (KFH), and Saudi National Bank (SNB), alongside golden partners such as Khaleeji Commercial Bank, Al Baraka Banking Group, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), Bahrain Islamic Bank (BiSB), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and DDCAP Group.

On this special occasion, AAOIFI would like to extend its appreciation and gratitude to all participants, scholars, speakers, sponsors, and media partners for their invaluable contributions towards making this event a success.