UITM’s ARI bags 4th GIFA award
KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Teknologi MARA’s (UiTM) Accounting Research Institute (ARI) has won the Global Research Excellence in Islamic Financial Criminology Award 2017 for the fourth consecutive year.
The award was presented at the seventh Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) in Astana, Kazakhstan, recently.
The award shows that UiTM is internationally recognised for its sustained efforts, commitment and dedication to advocating academic research in Islamic finance.
At the same event, ARI director Professor Dr Normah Omar was conferred the Advocacy of Islamic Financial Criminology GIFA Special
Award in recognition of her ef- forts in advancing research in the area of Islamic Financial Criminology as well as her work to combat financial crime.
Normah, who has been ARI’s director since its inception in 2006, has led ARI in winning a variety of international awards, including the GIFA awards from 2014 to 2017, the ACQ Global Awards in 2015 and 2016, the Asean Global Risk Awards in 2016 and the Global Good Governance Award earlier this year.
Research on financial criminology, which has been selected by the Higher Education Ministry as a niche research area for ARI to focus on, was timely and in tandem with the government’s aspiration to make Malaysia a global Islamic finance hub, said Dr Normah, as quoted by Bernama, after receiving the award recently.
The GIFA 2017 awards ceremony, which was attended by Islamic banking and finance professionals from around the world, are the most prestigious awards in the Islamic finance services industry.
It seeks to recognise individuals and organisations for their successes and best practices to advance the Islamic finance sector.
GIFA awarded ARI with the “Best Research and Development in Islamic Finance” award last year, “Pioneer in Islamic Financial Criminology Research” award in 2015 and “Best Islamic Finance Education Provider” award in 2014.
Beyond its focus on Islamic Financial Criminology, ARI also works in the broader area of Financial Criminology, which includes anti-money laundering and antiterrorism financing, financial fraud, corruption prevention mechanisms and the development of corporate integrity systems.