Monday, June 04, 2007

Opinions on Islamic finance, plans & reports denied

An opinion piece about whether Islamic finance should continue creating Islamic versions of conventional products or whether it would be better served in the long run by focusing on providing products which are not currently available.

Conventional and Islamic real estate financing in the UAE should rely more on securitization, says Nasser Saidi, the cheif economist at the Dubai International Financial Centre

Gillian Tett of the Financial Times explores the new innovations in Islamic finance, as well as critics' claims that the industry should fully develop a smaller set of products before introducing new products such as Shari'ah-compliant hedge funds and derivatives. In addition to rapidly increasing the complexity of the Islamic financial industry, critics argue that despite having the contracts approved by scholars, contravene the prohibition of gharar (speculation).

Professor Bala Shanmugam of Monash University in Malaysia argues that Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) should offer micro loans to the poor using murabaha (cost-plus financing) or qard hassan (benevolent loan).

Another description of Gulf Finance House's (GFH) plan to issue Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange.

The Kuwaiti government denies reports that it is selling its stake in Kuwait Finance House.

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