In this respect, I would like to emphasise the Short-Term European Paper (STEP) initiative. The STEP initiative promotes the development of a European shortterm paper market through market players’ voluntary compliance with a set of standards encompassed in the STEP Market Convention. By the end of March this year, 35 STEP-compliant programmes, amounting to € billion, had been launched under the STEP label.
Corresponding modifications to existing AAOIFI standards have not yet been made. This means that, for rating purposes or competitive reasons, Islamic banks may need to follow IFRS where AAOIFI standards do not fully cover the concerned product or disclosure. This lack of equivalent AAOIFI standards is making difficulties in producing financial statements for Islamic banks.