Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) announced its sponsorship of the 14th AAOIFI Annual Shari'a Conference, which took place between 17th and 18th of November 2014 at the Diplomat Hotel, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. The Conference was held under the auspices of Central Bank of Bahrain and organized by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the international organization that formulates standards on accounting, auditing, ethics, governance and Shari'a for the international Islamic finance industry. On this occasion, Mr. Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat, Managing Director and CEO of KFH-Bahrain, congratulated the newly appointed Secretary-General, Dr. Hamed Hassan Merah on accepting this important responsibility, asking Allah Almighty to help him in his role in taking the Organization to greater heights. Mr. Alkhayyat further commented, "KFH-Bahrain recognizes the importance of such conferences that aim to enrich the field of Islamic banking through the discussion of topics related to the business. This year’s conference provided an essential forum to meet and discuss various key issues among participants and specialists from Islamic banks and financial institutions." "The AAOIFI continues to lead the way by gathering the major financial institutions together and set new standards and best practices for Islamic financial institutions. The valuable discussions held during the sessions will help steer the Islamic finance industry towards growth and this influence will be felt worldwide as the concept of ethical banking continues to develop and expand", he added. Amongst the topics being discussed at the conference are: AAOIFI accounting standards in the context of global convergence, challenges on fully adopting International Financial Reporting Standards and the Accounting and Shari’a Perspectives of Islamic Insurance. Also it discusses the major features of Basel III and its implication on Islamic finance and the potential changes to accounting standard on Ijarah and Murabaha.