H.E. Rasheed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, along with Mr. Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat MD and CEO of Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain, presented Professor Simon Archer with a special award to recognise his contributions to the field of Islamic Finance. The award was presented at a prestigious gala dinner on October 3rd, 2010 at the Ritz Carlton, Bahrain. The dinner followed a seminar which was supported by Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain and organised by the IFSB (Islamic Financial Services Board) on Business Models in Islamic Finance. IFSB is an international standard-setting organisation, based in Kuala Lumpur that promotes and enhances the soundness and stability of the Islamic financial services industry. It also issues global prudential standards and guiding principles for the industry, which includes the - banking, capital markets and insurance sectors. The seminar, held earlier in the day, focused on the Challenges and Opportunities facing Islamic finance and examined such issues as Profit Sharing in Investment Accounts and Shari'ah-Compliant Private Equity Models. Professor Archer was one of the distinguished key speakers at the seminar. H.E. Rasheed Al Maraj stressed the importance of conducting this IFSB Seminar, which was led by Professor Rifaat Abdel Karim, Secretary General of the IFSB, and further the significance of the various topics that were discussed during the seminar. He noted that these topics required much thought in order to meet the many challenges faced by the Islamic banking industry. H.E. the Governor also stressed the active role played by Professor Simon Archer in this area and in appreciation, honoured him at the gala dinner for his significant contribution to the industry. The seminar was moderated by Mr. Khalid Hamad Abdulrahman Hamad, Executive Director - Banking Supervision at CBB, who chaired the seminar on the topics discussed. Acknowledging Professor Archer's outstanding work, Mr. Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat, of KFH-Bahrain said, "Professor Archer's academic contributions are based on considerable knowledge and experience as a practitioner in the field of Islamic finance so his insights and contributions are extremely valuable to us all. We are very proud to be able to award him an honour of recognition for his continuous efforts." After receiving the award, Professor Archer thanked KFH-Bahrain for supporting the IFSB for organising this strategic seminar and said, "It is vitally important for the industry to continually upgrade itself and keep abreast of issues such as transparency and market discipline. Seminars like this encourage a healthy dialogue and exchange of ideas." He also acknowledged the important role that the CBB plays as the provider of a regulatory framework for financial institutions. He also thanked H.E. Rasheed Al Maraj for attending the gala dinner as well as Professor Rifaat Abdel Karim, who has had a significant impact on his involvement in this work. The seminar was the second in a series of three awareness programmes organised by the IFSB being held throughout October 2010. The first was held in Istanbul and focused on Islamic Capital Markets and the third will be a Roundtable discussion on Effective Insolvency Regimes due to be held on the 10th of October in Washington D.C. and held in conjunction with the upcoming International Monetary Fund/ World Bank Annual Meeting.