Leadership Talk Series at AKEPT

The one-day 6th AKEPT Leadership Talk Series 2016 was successfully held today at the Higher Education Leadership Academy campus in Bandar Enstek. About two hundred participants comprising academic leaders attended the event.  Some interesting programs of the Talk Series included two key-note speeches.  The first talk titled Transformative Higher Education Leadership: Anticipating the Game Changer was delivered by YBhg. Datuk Ir. (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hashim, Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS.  This session was moderated by YBrs. Prof. Madya Dr. Mohd Rushdan Mohd Jailani, Deputy Director Centre for Academic Leadership, AKEPT.  The second talk titled Shaping Higher Education for 21st Century was delivered by YBhg. Prof. Datuk Dr. Noor Azlan Ghazali, Vice Chancellor Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.  YBrs. Prof. Madya Dr. Zafir Khan Mohamed Makhbul, Deputy Director Centre for Knowledge Circle, AKEPT moderated the session. The afternoon session was a forum titled Leadership by Design: Strengthening Integrity in Higher Education.  The forum was moderated by YBhg. Prof. Dato’ Noor Aziah Mohd Awal, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student & Alumni Affairs) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).  

Four panelists tasked to discuss the topic included (1)  Prof. Dr. Zulkiple Abd Ghani, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic & International) Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, (2) YBhg. Prof. Emeritus Dr. Tengku Mohd Tengku Sembok, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic & International) Universiti Pertahanan Nasional    Malaysia, (3) YBhg. Prof. Dr. Yang Farina Abdul Aziz, Professor, FASc FMIC Faculty of Science and Technology Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and (4) YBhg. Prof. Dr. Normah Omar, Director Accounting Research Institute (ARI) Universiti Teknologi MARA.  Following the Forum was a speech by YB Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh, Minister of Higher Education.  The session was moderated by YBhg. Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd  Noordin Chairman, Board of Advisors Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT). This was followed by a dialogue between the minister and the participants.  The day's event were concluded with the launching of AKEPT's Leadership book series by the minister.  Congratulations AKEPT for providing a great platform to train and nurture future leaders for Malaysia's Higher Education sector.

    

VC-CoE Directors Meeting

The newly appointed Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) , Emeritus Professor Dato' Dr Hassan Said recently invited all directors of UiTM's Centres of Excellence to his office for an informal meeting.  The meeting was attended by directors of Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE) - Prof Dr Zaki Salleh; Accounting Research Institute (ARI) - Prof Dr Normah Omar, Institute of Science (IOS) - Prof Dr Ahmad Sazali; Institute of Pathology, Medical and Forensic Laboratory (I-PPerForm) - Prof Dr Hafizah Nawawi; Malaysian Institute of Transport (MITRANS) - Dr Harlina; Atta-Ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Discovery (AU-RiND);  Institute of Business Excellence (IBE) - Prof Dr Sofiah and Microwave Technology Centre - Prof Dr Zaiki Awang.  Basically the discussions focused on the VC's expectation for CoEs to lead research activities in the university.  Two very important aspects that must be a priority in 2016 are for the CoEs to (i) train research leaders for the university and (ii) to obtain international and industry grants for UiTM.

ARI-PBBM Integrated Training and Conference 2014 - Day Four

Day Four

Today is dedicated for an in-house training where participants are involved in the so-called "Inter-Agency Forum -the Sharing of Best Practices of Corporate Governance of Malaysian Statutory Bodies".  Since the theme of the training program is "Untangling the Divergence", the focus of discussions is on diversity and how an institution should work on employees' strengths and expertise.  To showcase personal diversity, the participants are also introduced to the concept of personality theory.  Specifically, the model used by Florence Littauer was discussed.  In her book titled "Personality Plus", Florence Littauer introduces four personality types namely (i) Perfect Melancholy, (ii) Peaceful Phlegmatic, (ii) Happy Sanguine, and (iv) Powerful Choleric.  In Personality Plus, Florence Littauer gives us valuable insight for appreciating your one-of-a-kind, God-given personality. She includes a Personality Profile test that reveals how our unique blend of traits affects our emotions, work performance, and relationships.  More importantly, participants were encouraged to understand others, particularly their employees on these diverse personality.  After all, a successful organisation needs to work in teams. After the forum, participants were taken for London City visits.  

Uncovering Financial Shenanigans

Dr. Howard M. Schilit in his book titled Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports lists seven different shenanigans often committed by perpetrators.  Shenanigans are actions or omissions designed to hide or distort the real financial performance or financial condition of a company.  The seven shenanigans are namely: (1) Recording revenue too soon; (2) Recording bogus revenue; (3)  Boosting income with one time gains; (4) Shifting current expenses to later periods; (5)  Failing to disclose all liabilities; (6) Shifting current income to later periods and (7)  Shifting future expenses to current periods.  In trying to understand the concept of shenanigans, the AFC713 students were given financial statements as they are presented in the annual reports.  Then they are to identify transactions that may involved at least 1 financial shenanigan. Congratulations guy, everyone managed to identify at least 3 financial shenanigans.  

UiTM Academic Conference

Every year, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), through the office of the deputy vice chancellor (academic and internationalisation) organizes its academic conference.  Themed "Propelling Academic Excellence through World Class Practices", the 2013 Academic Conference invited four internationally renowned speakers to speak at the2-day conference held on 30 - 31 January 2013.  Dr Andreas Bender from the Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom spoke on a topic titled "Strategising to Strengthen Research Culture: Towards Developing World Class Higher Education.  Emeritus Professor Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi from Universiti Teknologi MARA delivered a topic on "Academic Integrity and Ethics".  Professor Dr Chesley John Skinner from the Department of Near Eastern Language & Civilization shares his personal international experiences of teaching and researching in  various institutions globally since he left Canada in the early 1970's.  Currently, Professor Skinner is a visiting professor at UiTM.  Apt with his own personal experiences, he spoke on a topic titled "Teaching at Home and Abroad: Some Observations from Along the Way".  Certainly interesting stuffs. The final speaker, Dr Mahender Singh from the Institute of Supply Chain  Innovation and MIT Global SCALE Network, Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke on a topic related to "Global Networking: Sharing of Experiences".  In the afternoon, the Conference presented academic awards to deserving lecturers and researchers.

Congratulations Prof Dr Zainab - IR

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) congratulates Prof Dr Zainab Abu Bakar for her successful professorial lecture this morning.  Titled "Exploring the Challenging Information Retrieval Terrain", Prof Zainab posits that to be at the frontier of information retrieval (IR)knowledge, her research explores various information need of a fairly diversed scopes.  Her research covers the terrain of Malay text, "songket" motifs, students term papers and many others.  Retreiving information requires specific algorithms to search and match the information stored as indexed objects.  She further added that for each query that is often expressed in "natural language", the retreival methods have to be effective and efficient.  Her professorial lecture book is first and foremost a book of ideas, models, algorithims and data collections of the Malay language and heritage.  Congratulations for contributing greatly to the ICT-based knowledge.....

Sharing Session with UTM

The Accounting Research Institute thanks Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for inviting ARI and Professor Dr Normah, its director to share ARI's own journey and experiences as a Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE).  In a two-day program to "enhance and encourage" its current centres of excellence to achieve the HICoE stature within the next three years, the university has invited several speakers from among research institutions to share their experiences.  Two current HICoEs - UMPEDAC and ARI have been particularly "tasked" to share their HICoE journey.  Throughout ARI's two-hour session, it has indeed been very interative moments with participants asking both general and specific questions about HICoE.  UTM's Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Prof. Ir Dr Mohd Azraai Kassim was also present to lend his support.  Some forty participants, comprising directors and heads of centres of excellence attended the session.  According to its strategic educational plan, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) aspires to recognise twenty HICoEs with international stature by the year 2020.  For ARI, the HICoE journey has indeed been the most rewarding and fulfilling to all its members at the institute.  The biggest paradign shift that ARI members have to undergo was to change their research focus from being a "generalist" to a "specialist" in the niche area of Islamic Financial Criminology.

i-CSR Workshop with Islamic Finance Practitioners

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is currently funding a research project to develop an Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility (i-CSR) General Practice Framework. This is in line with ARI’s niche area of research in Islamic Financial Criminology which comprises of Islamic Finance and Muamalat and Financial Criminology.  The i-CSR research project which is under the Islamic Finance and Muamalat domain is currently undertaken by a group of ARI’s researchers headed by Associate Prof Dr Faizah Darus, Head of the UiTM – ACCA Asia-Pacific Centre for Sustainability (APCeS) together with a group of researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia and Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia. Besides the academics, the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) has also agreed to pe part of the research team. APCeS is one of ARI’s research centres which was set-up in 2008 in collaboration with ACCA with the objective to bring about qualitative improvements in the Corporate Sustainability Practices within the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of the i-CSR research project is to establish an i-CSR General Practice Framework for Islamic institutions based on Syariah principles in which, it will provide a holistic guidance on CSR for Islamic Institutions. In order to gather feedbacks from CSR practitioners, on the proposed i-CSR General Practice Framework, a two-day workshop with CSR managers and Syariah officers of Islamic banks/institutions to present the proposed i-CSR General Practice Framework and to develop an i-CSR index to be used as guidelines by CSR practitioners and implementers in Islamic institutions has been held recently on 29 - 30th November 2012. Participation to the 2-day workshop was by invitation only. Participants were from among Islamic economic scholars, members of Syariah Supervisory Board and Islamic jurist (ulama), CSR managers and Syariah officers of Islamic banks/institutions. A total of 40 participants were at the workshop which was held in Putrajaya. ARI thanks all participants who took part in the event. Once the instrument is further improved, it will be discussed at a CEO forum which will be held in early 2013.  Congratulations and thank you all.... 

i-CSR @ BERNAMA

Today, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) and IBBM organized a half day Intellectual Discourse with Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) practitioners of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) to discuss the i-CSR framework. i-CSR is ARI's latest initiative, a research product that is fully backed by Islamic and Shariah principles.  In facilitating the country's bigger agenda of making Malaysia a global Islamic Finance hub, i-CSR is a strategic new product addition to the sector.  Premised on the concepts of shariah, i-CSR integrates the principles of Ibadah, Maqasid and Maslahah.  CSR in itself is an ibadah.  Higher level of CSR activities implicates a corporation's steady and healthy economic performance.  As a research institution, ARI works closely with ulama' or Islamic scholars and practitioners to ensure its research products are built on very strong fundamendal.  Earlier in 2011, the initial i-CSR framework was developed collaboratively by ARI researchers, headed by Associate Professor Dr Faizah Darus with CSR experts from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM); Sebelas Maret University and Universitas Muhamadiah, both from Indonesia.  The group had also met several Islamic scholars.  More than forty bankers and CSR practitioners attended today's event.  Currently, CSR practices of IFIs are governed by conventional framework which gives higher focus on the CSR activities themselves.  i-CSR encompases the "Niat", "CSR activities", "priority" and "dakwah".   BERNAMA was among the first media partner to provide ARI the exclusive interview for its  primetime news....
 

 

Stolen Fruit is the Sweetest..? or the Bitterest...?

The professorial lecture by Professor Dr Normah Omar, Director of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) went smoothly as scheduled.  The lecture title - "Financial Criminology: Stolen Fruit is the Sweetest...? or the Bitterest? was able to capture interest as evidenced by a large audience turnout of more than 450 participants.  There's indeed a good mix of participants - fellow professors, industry players, bankers, regulators, enforcement agencies, professional bodies, academia and students. Special credits should be given to the organizing committee, Faculty of Accountancy for showcasing an interesting and "flawless" event - good food, great crowd, interesting lecture content and most importantly superb time management.  Everything was on schedule.  Participants were given a copy of the Professorial Lecture book as a momento.  Professor's Normah's lecture was divided into five segments: (1) Introduction to the concepts of financial fraud & criminology; (2) Financial Statement Fraud & its related theories; (3) International Auditing Standards - SAS 99 & ISA 240; (5) A Malaysian Empirical Study on "Consideration of Fraud in the Audit of Financial Statement and (6) Recommendations & Conclusion.  Considering audiences are from various backgrounds and experiences, Professor Dr Normah was deliberate in "engaging" them with her lecture.  As serious as the concept "Financial Criminology" may portray, Prof Normah nevertheless has successfully mixed humour, wit and professional wisdom to make the topic interesting and alive.  In her final message, Prof Normah further reiterated that the fight against financial crime is the responsibility of all.  Everyone should become a "whistleblower" to crime....

Al Rajhi AML Awareness Week

Two researchers (Prof Dr Normah & Associate Prof Dr Zuraidah) from the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) have been invited by Al Rajhi Bank to present a short lecture entitled "The Use of Non-Profit Organisations(NPOs) as a Conduit to Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Activities".  Basically the topic discusses recent findings published by both the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Asia Pacific Group of Anti Money Laundering (APG) on evaluation of NPOs globally.  Al Rajhi organises the event as part of its Anti-Money Laundering Awareness program.  In the United Kingdom, the NPO sector is also called the "third sector", following the public and private sectors.  The presence of a large non-profit sector in a country is seen as an indicator of a healthy economy in local and national financial measurements.  With a growing number of non-profit organizations focused on social services, the environment, education and other unmet needs throughout society, the nonprofit sector is increasingly central to the health and well-being of society (CSR) .  As a third sector, NPOs when transacting with financial institutions must also be subjected to the "due diligence" and "Know your client" policies.  The APG has also published a typology titled "Material Information" which necessitates NPOs to furnish the following:

1. Different types of revenues (e.g. membership fees, grants, donation etc)
2. Activities for generating funds (e.g. receipts from dinner and sales of books)
3. Investment income if any (e.g. rental, dividend)
4. Expenditure and its distribution
5. List of personnel (members, directors etc)
6. Governance  and anti-fraud (meetings, reports etc)
7. Beneficiaries (in and outside of Malaysia)

i- CSR Intellectual Discourse

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is currently funding a research project to develop an Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility (i-CSR) General Practice Framework. This is in line with ARI’s niche area of research in Islamic Financial Criminology which comprises of Islamic Finance and Muamalat and Financial Criminology. The i-CSR research project which is under the Islamic Finance and Muamalat domain is currently undertaken by a group of ARI’s researchers headed by Associate Prof Dr Faizah Darus of the UiTM – ACCA Asia-Pacific Centre for Sustainability (APCeS) together with a group of researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia and Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia.  APCeS is one of ARI’s research centres which was set-up in 2008 in collaboration with ACCA with the objective to bring about qualitative improvements in the Corporate Sustainability Practices within the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of the i-CSR research project is to establish an i-CSR General Practice Framework for Islamic institutions based on Syariah principles in which, it will provide a holistic guidance on CSR for Islamic Institutions. In order to gather feedbacks on the Islamic concept of the proposed framework from Islamic economic scholars, Syariah Supervisory Board members, and Islamic jurist (ulama), ARI in collaboration with  the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) will be organizing a half-day intellectual discourse scheduled to be held on Tuesday 6^th November 2012 at IBFIM.

Implications of the Auditing Standards

Both SAS 99 and ISA 240 provide guidance to financial auditors to consider fraud in the audit of financial statement.  Within the Rule-Based, Sarbanes-Oxley environment in the USA, it is mandatory for auditors to include the proposed guidance into their audit planning.  For IFAC’s Principle-Based standards, auditors are to use the guidelines to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from risks.  There are nevertheless, several other implications of the standards on auditors. Firstly, it is important to note that both standards (SAS 99 and ISA 240) provide guidance to auditors in fulfilling their responsibility, as it relates to fraud, in an audit of financial statements.  Technically, both standards are only applicable to financial statement audits.  However, concepts and guidance are appropriate for other types of audits. Secondly, the standards ensure that “the auditor has a responsibility to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether caused by error or fraud.”  Although even in a properly planned and performed audit, auditor may not be able to detect a material misstatement resulting from fraud, the standards can only provide reasonable assurance and not absolute assurance. Thirdly, it is the management’s responsibility to design and implement anti-fraud programs and internal control system to prevent, deter, and detect fraud.  Such responsibility may include “setting the proper tone from the top”; creating and maintaining a culture of honesty and ethics; and establishing appropriate control mechanisms to prevent and detect fraud in organizations.

ISA 240

 Whilst the “rules-based” SAS 99 is enforceable in the United States of America, elsewhere, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), a global accountancy organization issues similar standard - the International Standard on Auditing 240 (ISA 240) which focuses on “The Auditor’s Responsibilities Relating to Fraud in an Audit of Financial Statements”.   ISA 240 is “principle-based”, which means that the standard provides a conceptual basis for auditors to follow instead of detailed rules.  Under principles-based approach, the standard lays out the key objectives, then relate the auditor’s “responsibility to fraud when auditing financial statement” to some common examples.  Some elements of judgments are allowed to be exercised by the auditors. In the case of ISA 240 on “The Auditor’s Responsibilities Relating to Fraud in an Audit of Financial Statements”, the standard outlines eleven key responsibilities that auditors should consider:  Characteristics of  Fraud;          Professional Skepticism; Discussion among the Engagement Team; Risk Assessment Procedures and Related Activities;  Identification and Assessment of the Risks of Material Misstatement Due to Fraud;  Responses to the Assessed Risks of Material Misstatement Due to Fraud;  Evaluation of Audit Evidence;  Inability of Auditor to Continue the Audit Engagement;  Written Representations;                 Communications to Management and with those Charged with Governance  and  Communications to Regulatory and Enforcement Authorities

 

 

US-Based SAS 99

SAS 99 is a US-Based standard established to provide guidelines to auditors (in the USA) when considering fraud in the audit of financial statements.  The standard was drawn in response to accounting scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco, the Statement on Auditing Standards 99 (SAS 99) was issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the AICPA in 2002 within the powerful legislation of the Sarbenes-Oxley Act 2002.  The Sarbanes-Oxley Act or more commonly known as SOX “requires all public companies to provide more financial information than ever before, and holds corporate directors and officers personally accountable for the accuracy of financial disclosures”.  Essentially, the Act which is enforceable to all companies in the USA (and their respective subsidiary and associate companies elsewhere globally) is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  For public companies, the SEC sets deadlines for compliance and publishes rules on requirements.  Because it is rules-driven, any standards or guidelines issued within its legislation are known as “rules-based”.  SAS 99 is one example of rules-based auditing standards.  Effectively, auditors must comply with all the detail rules when auditing a company’s financial statements.  Many  accountants and auditors favor the prospect of using rules-based standards, because in the absence of rules they could be brought to court if their judgments of the financial statements were incorrect. When there are strict rules that need to be followed, the possibility of lawsuits is diminished. Having a set of rules can increase accuracy and reduce the ambiguity that can trigger aggressive reporting decisions by management. SAS 99 is part of the AICPA’s anti-fraud program which aims to provide accountants and auditors with clarified and focused auditing guidance on fraud.  Similarly, it reemphasizes the role of entity management and boards in preventing and detecting fraud.  With the prospect of using SAS as a guideline to consider fraud when auditing financial statements, the standard has been arranged to cover nine key components: Description and characteristics of fraud;  Professional skepticism; Brainstorming sessions among key engagement personal; Information gathering;  Risk Identification; Evaluation of an entity's programs and controls;  Results of the Assessment; Communication of possible fraud and

Documentation of the auditor's consideration of fraud.

Financial Statement Fraud

Financial statements are traditionally prepared by accountants to provide business owners and other interested stakeholders with an accurate account of their financial status at any one specific point in time.  If however, the financial statements do not make accurate representations of the company’s financial status, they could be due either to errors or fraud.  Financial statement fraud  occurs when any pertinent information is either intentionally omitted or improperly disclosed on any of the four main financial statement components namely balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and shareholder’s equity.   There are several available classifications of financial statement fraud.  Schilit (2010) in his famous book “Financial Shenanigans” names seven common types of financial fraud: (i) Recording revenue too soon, (ii) Recording bogus revenue, (iii) Boosting income with one-time gains, (iv) Shifting current expenses to a later or earlier period, (v) Failing to disclose all liabilities, (vi) Shifting current income to a later period and (vii) Shifting future expenses into the current period.   On the same note, the US-based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) classifies the above financial statement fraud into five different categories.  They are namely (i) fictitious revenue, (ii) timing differences, (iii) improper assets valuations, (iv) concealed liabilities and expenses and (v) improper disclosures.  

Rules are to be Broken?...

Sometimes it is amazing to see how people just "ignore" rules and just do the opposites?... For example, people ignore the "No smoking" sign and smoke; people simply speeding in a "low speed" zone; selling stuff right at the  "do not solicit" sign board or littering in the "do not litter zone"?.  Like these non law-abiding citizens, fraudsters love challenges.  Companies may establish standard operating procedures; code of ethics; rules; guidelines and policies - frauders may just want to break the rules or defy the procedures.  As such, having the rules or the laws alone may not be enough.  Companies and organisations must ensure that such procedures are strictly enforced.  Effective enforcement is  key in fraud mitigation process.  Companies must adopt the "zero tolerance" policy for fraud....

Stolen Fruit is the Sweetest...? or the Bitterest...?

The title of this entry may sound a bit philosophical, but that will be the title of Prof Normah's (Director of the Accounting Research Institute ARI) upcoming Professorial Lecture which will be held on 1st November 2012 at Universiti Teknologi MARA.  Financial Crime is in this case likened to "stolen fruit".  If they are not caught for their crime, fraudsters may continue to enjoy their "fortune" - living in luxury or even get the "glamorous" attention somewhat like celebrities.  In this case, "Stolen fruit is the sweetest...".  Of course, crime doesn't pay, if they are caught, fraudsters will lose their dignity, reputation and their life.  Professionals like accountants, auditors, company secretaries and lawyers must play their role to mitigate and prevent financial crime.  Management on the other hand must remember that it is their responsibility to ensure credibility of the financial numbers.  The professorial lecture will elaborate on financial statement fraud; role of auditors; role of management; standards and legislations governing financial statement fraud and fraud prevention  mechanisms.

Intellectual Discourse in Microfinance

The Islamic Accounting & Muamalat research cluster of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) organises a half-day intellectual discourse to discuss issues, challenges and possible solutions for one of the cluster's research program on Microfinance.  The event was an avenue for the practitioners in the industry to interact, network and most importantly share knowledge and experience with researchers. Among the speakers invited for the occasions were Encik Mohd Yusnizam Mohd Yasin, Head of the Business Banking Unit, Consumer Banking Department of CIMB Islamic; Puan Kamisah Abdul Kadir, Deputy Director of Development Finance and Enterprise of Bank Negara Malaysia; Puan Nilammasri Jaafar, Senior Vice President/Head of Microfinance at BSN; Encik Hamdan Mohd Habibollah, Vice President/Head of Entrepneur Banking of SME Bank and Encik Abdul Aziz Isa, Senior Officer in Business Banking Department at Agrobank. Representing ARI were Prof Rashidah Abdul Rahman, ARI Deputy Director and Ismail Mahayudin, ARI Senior Research Fellow.  The presentations revolved around the banks’ experience in managing their micro finance scheme; detailing the strengths, opportunities and challenges they faced. They also provided actions and solutions to overcome the obstacles.The program ended with a forum where participants had the opportunity to engage in discussion with the bankers and the regulator on the future outlook of microfinance industry in Malaysia.

Professorial Lecture

A professorial lecture by Prof Dr Normah Omar, Director of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) will be held on 1st November 2012.  Prof Normah, who is a senior professor at the Faculty of Accountancy, University Teknologi MARA (UiTM) will give a lecture entitled "Financial Criminology: Stolen Fruit is the Sweetest...?  or the Bitterest...?".  The event will be jointly organized by the Faculty of Accountancy and the Institute of Leadership and Quality Management (IlQAM). Other details are as follows:

Venue: Dewan Sri Budiman, UiTM Shah Alam

Time: 8.30 am to 11.30 am

Everyone is invited