KUALA LUMPUR, September 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Malaysia's Central Bank governor, has been awarded the "World's Best Central Bank Governor".

The Euromoney magazine's prestigious award was given to Zeti for overseeing successful reforms in Malaysia's financial markets, reported Malaysia’s Bernama news agency Monday, September 26.

"Our Central Bank Governor of the Year goes to a woman whose quiet, shy demeanor hides her fierce determination to boost the country's economy and to build it as a hub for finance in the region," Euromoney chairman and editor-in-chief Padriac Fallon said in the awards ceremony.

"She's the supreme professional, the new breed of central bank governors who have emerged in the recent past," he added.

Fallon said that since becoming head of the central bank in 2000, Zeti has supervised radical reform of the exchange rate, the capital markets and the banking industry.

"I commend the former Prime Minister (Mahathir Mohamad) for picking her out early," he added.

This governor, Fallon said, quietly but highly successfully oversaw the transition of its currency from a fixed-to-the-dollar to the managed floating rate system.

"For this and more, Euromoney's Central Bank Governor of the Year is Dr Zeti," he concluded.

Zeti, who has been with the central bank for 22 years, said the award was a tribute to her country's central bank (Bank Negara).

"I have the privilege of working with an outstanding team in Bank Negara who are enthusiastic and we've worked together to bring about the significant transformation of the financial sector and also the development of Islamic finance," she said.

"The central bank's job is never finished. We can never sit back and think our job is well done," she stressed, adding that there is a continuous challenge to address for an emerging market like Malaysia's.

"There's so much to be done because the global market is changing so rapidly," Zeti said.

This was the third award in three years for Zeti.

She was chosen "Best Governor in Asia" by Emerging Markets magazine in 2003.

Zeti also won the "Global Award for Central Banker of the Year" from The Banker, a publication of the Financial Times in 2004.

The Malaysian Central Bank Governor noted that Islamic banking and finance are increasingly becoming an attractive form of financial intermediation among Muslim and a growing number of non-Muslim countries.

"We believe that the global development of Islamic finance has gathered momentum," Zeti told Malaysian reporters Monday.

She said the world community now looks at Islamic finance as "interesting," and several countries such as Britain and Singapore have revised their legislation to accommodate Islamic finance.

Zeti underlined that Islamic banking is also picking up in the United States and Europe, where some mainstream banks are opening up divisions within their institutions to develop and provide these products and services to their clients.

She noted that Islamic banking and finance started with Muslims looking for financial services which met Islamic principles.

"Now it has moved further than that - non-Muslims look at it as an attractive form of financial intermediation".

The Islamic financial industry, which began three decades ago, has made substantial growth, drawing continuous attention from investors and bankers.

Growing at an estimated 15 percent annually, the Islamic finance market is currently estimated to be worth more than 300 billion dollars with more than 200 Islamic finance institutions operating.

Lloyds TSB, Britain's fifth-largest bank, recently became the third bank in the country to offer Shari`ah- compliant mortgage services.