Saturday, December 08, 2007

Weekly update, December 8th

Australia may be one of the winners from the rapid growth of Islamic finance.

The Financial Times released a story last week on the global race to offer Shari'ah-compliant products with competitive returns to conventional products.

Malaysian-based Islamic bank, Asian Finance Bank has received a license to enter the Indonesian market. Indonesia is home to the largest number of Muslims of any country in the world, but the growth of Islamic finance in the country has been low while countries in the Middle East and Malaysia have seen rapid growth.

A delay in legislative changes in Indonesia has delayed the issuance of government sukuk until next year.

New risk management techniques designed specifically for Islamic financial institutions are being developed.

Islamic real estate financing is growing rapidly and many customers are using Shari'ah-compliant alternatives because they feel there is a financial benefit of doing so.

The Shari'ah Supervisory Board of Pakistani Islamic bank Meezan Bank approved products to allow the company to enter into Islamic microfinance.

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