2011 Roundup: Ethica Leads in Islamic Finance Certification With Over 20,000 Paying Users

Dubai, UAE, November 13, 2011 -

With users from 43 countries and over 100 banks and universities, in 2011 Ethica became the default choice for accredited training and certification in Islamic finance

In a tight job market, more bankers and students now choose Ethica to boost their credentials than any other Islamic finance program in the world. That’s the latest finding as 2011 enrollment figures roll in and catapult the Dubai-based institute ahead of older institutions like INCEIF, CIMA, BIBF, and IIBI.

Experts say that what probably sets Ethica apart is that their 4-month Certified Islamic Finance Executive™(CIFE™) certification is the only 100% AAOIFI-compliant, 100% online Islamic finance program in the market today. AAOIFI stands for the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, the leading Islamic finance standard in the world and the de facto standard for over 90% of the world’s jurisdictions. Ethica’s certifications are approved by some of the industry’s top Islamic finance scholars, including Shaykh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, one of AAOIFI’s Shariah Board members, and Mufti Zubair Usmani, Shariah advisor on the boards of several institutions.

Ahsan Shah, a recent Ethica student from the US says, “I communicated with a number of Ethica CIFE students on LinkedIn and discovered that while all CIFE graduates praised the Ethica program highly and considered it an excellent investment for their careers, graduates from other programs kept sending me precautionary warnings about not being optimistic because too many doors hadn’t been opened for them.”

Ethica’s spokesperson said, “At Ethica we try to focus on two basics that we feel other institutes seem to ignore: reliability and convenience. Ethica’s reliability comes from 100% AAOIFI-compliance and the convenience comes from 100% online delivery. If a program is only 90% AAOIFI-compliant, for instance, there’s always going to be a question mark about the Shariah compliance of the certification. And if a program isn’t delivered completely online, then bankers and students are left dealing with guidebooks in the mail or crash courses in the classroom.”

The combination seems to be paying off as Ethica brings together a diverse set of clients across 43 countries: large banks like Mashreq Bank where hundreds of bankers are trained and certified; established universities like La Trobe University in Australia where students take for-credit courses based on Ethica content; and media partners like Dow Jones affiliate Zawya, where over 750,000 users are offered Ethica’s training and certification.

About Ethica: Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance (www.EthicaInstitute.com) is a training, certification, and advisory institute based in Dubai, UAE. In 2011, 2010, and 2009 Ethica received the “Best Islamic Finance Training Institute” award nomination from Islamic Business and Finance Magazine and in 2011 received the “Best Islamic Finance Qualification” award nomination from Global Islamic Finance Awards in the UK. To watch an Ethica training video, click here (bit.ly/FCIjarah3) and to register for Ethica’s popular 7 day free course, click here (mim.io/07bcf)

For more information about this article, or to schedule an interview with Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, please call Sameer Hasan at +971-4-311-6724 or e-mail at info@ethicainstitute.com.

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