The Faculty of Business and Commercial Sciences at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik organized on May 3, 2011 a conference on the theme of “International Financial Crisis and Islamic Banking”, given by Mr. Adnan Yousif, CEO of AlBaraka Group.

Following the welcome speech by Ms. Lea Yahchouchi and the opening speech by Prof. Nehme Azoury, Dean of the organizing faculty, Mr. Yousif started his conference by pointing out that Islamic banking institutions were not deeply influenced by the international financial crisis, even though they were relatively affected by the international economic slowness. And this is due to the private character of the banks which adopt this type of financial systems.

Afterwards, Yousif highlighted, using statistics and graphs, the success achieved by Islamic banks, presenting observations on the performance of a sample of ten Islamic banks in comparison with their counterparts of traditional banks in the region, in order to demonstrate the flexibility of Islamic banking institutions in facing financial crisis. Yousif considered that “in order to be able to achieve economic well-being and prosperity in our countries, our economic policies should focus on finding a middle class from an economic perspective, so that to pave the way to achieve a major objective of economic policies that consists in the equitable distribution of wealth.

At the end of the conference, Yousif was presented with “TALENTED MANAGER OF THE YEAR 2011 AWARD”, as a token of his numerous major achievements in the Middle East and worldwide.