The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announces an extension to the deadline to apply for the Islamic Finance Research Translation Programme.
The SAMA programme is aimed at encouraging and advancing scientific research, in addition to leveraging its outcome inside and outside the Kingdom.
SAMA stressed that the programme is aimed at consolidating the Kingdom’s role in Islamic Finance, as well as highlighting their continued keenness to integrate the research system, thus acknowledging its societal responsibilities and pivotal role in this respect.
Additionally, the programme contributes towards accomplishing the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 of enhancing the Kingdom’s epistemic standing.
The translation of selected research projects in the programme will be done through SAMA in collaboration with a team of skilled translators – the jury will select the top twenty research projects once all translation files are submitted. The top 10 research papers will receive a prize of SAR 10,000, while papers that rank between 20th and 11th place will receive a prize of SAR 5,000. The last chance to apply for the program would be on Thursday, September 30, 2021.
Research areas targeted by the programme include Islamic Finance, Islamic Banking, Risk Management Banking, Fintech in Islamic Finance, and Legitimate Governance.
The programme also targets the topic of Islamic Insurance, which can be further analysed through SAMA’s recently published 2nd quarterly insurance report for 2021. The report has been published as part of the Central Bank’s commitment to providing accurate and up-to-date information on the performance of the insurance sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The report compares the performance of the insurance sector during Q2 of the year 2021 with the corresponding quarter in 2020. It also compares the performance during the first half of 2021 with the same period in the preceding year.
Overall, the sector showed positive developments during Q2 of the year 2021. The gross written premiums grew by 8.1% to reach 9.4 billion SAR in the second quarter of 2021 compared to 8.7 billion SAR in the corresponding period last year, with the majority of insurance classes witnessing a growth in premiums.
Among property and casualty classes, energy and property classes were the biggest classes by premium volume during Q2 of the year 2021, growing by 98% and 8% respectively over Q2 of the year 2020. Protection and saving insurance classes also grew by 34% reaching 436 Million SAR in Q2 of the year 2021. The Net income decreased by 59% driven by an 89.6% decrease in Operational Income. This decrease is attributable to the claims returning back to the pre-pandemic normal levels. The Solvency ratio improved to reach 172.2%.
