Islamic finance & sukuk growing rapidy, new S&P Shari'ah indexes launched

Sukuk issues growing rapidly

With $70 billion of sukuk currently issued globally, the Standard & Poor's Rating Service expects this number to exceed $100 billion by 2010. Sukuk issuance in 2006 of $16.8 billion was more than double the $7.6 billion issued in 2005.

A Standard & Poor's managing director, Torstens Hinrichs, believes demand for Islamic finance, currently around $400 billion, will increase to $4 trillion within the next 3 to 5 years.

Global Risk regulator has an article on how to regulate the growing Islamic finance industry.

New Shari'ah-compliant index

Standard & Poor's announced the launch of the GCC Shari'ah Indexes. The new indexes are:

• S&P Saudi Shari'ah

• S&P Bahrain Shari'ah

• S&P Kuwait Shari'ah

• S&P Oman Shari'ah

• S&P Qatar Shari'ah

• S&P United Arab Emirates Shari'ah

• S&P GCC Investable Shari'ah

• S&P GCC Composite Shari'ah Index