The conference circuit hits Australia

The Islamic finance industry is well and truly over-conferenced – but not so much in Australia, so it’s good to see that there will be a dedicated Islamic finance event in Melbourne in early June.

Speakers include Senators Nick Sherry and Chris Bowen as well as various others from Austrade and the Australian Financial Centre Forum. Steve Lambert, Global Head of Debt Markets at National Australia Bank will be presenting a case study of ‘Islamic Finance in Australian Commercial Banks’ which should be worth hearing.

The two-day conference is followed by the now-traditional workshop day. The event is called ISLAMIC FINANCE 2010: Practical Insights into how to integrate Islamic finance into the existing banking and finance system.

Fingers crossed that it lives up to its name. We also hope that it attracts significant numbers of delegates – there was an event in Canada recently where (reportedly) fewer than 30 delegates turned up. The Australian event deserves to do better...