With a fast-growing Islamic finance industry, Doha has all the potential to emerge as the ‘Capital of Islamic Finance”, industry experts stated yesterday.
”Doha is the most qualified financial center to transform into the world capital of Islamic finance, based on a package of indicators, the most prominent of which is the rapid growth of the financial sector, which listed Qatar among the top five Islamic finance centers in the world. The volume of Islamic finance assets in Qatar currently stands at $129bn, ” Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sualiti, Deputy Chairman of Bait Al-Mashura said.
Addressing the media, while announcing the hosting of the 6th Islamic Finance Conference in Doha on February 25, Dr. Khalid, who is also the Chairman of the Organising Committee, said Qatar has an ideal legislative framework, an operational environment and a distinct organizational structure in the Islamic finance industry.
‘Al Rayan Qatar ETF” is the largest Islamic ETF listed in a single country. ”Qatar plays a major role in developing the Sukuk industry globally. Moreover, Qatari companies operating by the provisions of Islamic Sharia are expanding in most of the world”s markets to lead the sector’s growth path internationally, he said.
Dr. Osama Qais Al Derai”ei, Vice-chairman of the Organising Committee and Managing Director and CEO of Bait Al Mashura Financial Consultations noted the Islamic finance industry is fast growing as the total number of Islamic financial institutions operating in the world reached the level of 1389, with a total asset of $2.4trillion. These institutions achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6 percent, while Islamic banking services hold a share of 71 percent or the equivalent of $1.7 trillion of the total volume of Islamic financial industry assets at a CAGR of 5 percent. It is estimated that the Islamic finance industry’s assets are expected to reach $3.2 trillion in 2020, he added.
QFC Chief Executive Officer Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida said: ”Qatar is poised to be one of the world”s leading Islamic Finance hubs, growing at CAGR of 8 percent since 2015, and characterized by its competitive and flexible regulatory environment that continues to attract Islamic finance institutions and products.
Originally published on www.menafn.com
KUALA LUMPUR (June 20): Bursa Malaysia Bhd has added Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd to the bourse operator and regulator’s Islamic participating organisations list to further grow the Islamic capital market.
JEDDAH — THE Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group signed three a Memorandum of Understanding in quick succession to strengthen collaboration.
With food accounting for nearly two-thirds of business in the global halal economy, there has been a flurry of new product activity in Asia-Pacific.
Islamic banks, referred to as ‘participation banks’ in Morocco, are likely to provide a modest stimulus to deposit growth in the country, Fitch Ratings says. Morocco’s central bank granted its first licences to Islamic banks last week.
Bishop David Oginde’s opinion piece “Why expansion of Sharia laws remains perturbing” published in the Sunday Standard last weekend gave the impression that some proposed reforms in the Finance Bill 2017 portend danger simply because they touch on Islamic financial products. Bishop Oginde was clever in his approach but his message was loud and clear; Reforms to help promote Islamic financial products in this country should be viewed as a grand scheme of Islamisation, subtly disguised in a policy cassock. Here is why his arguments do not hold water: First, the good Bishop’s opposition to the institutionalisation of these reforms seems to be on the basis that they are discriminatory and would marginalise non-Muslims. Bishop Oginde notes, “The concern therefore is that such a move may result in a situation where the Muslim community enjoys preferential exempt status by government in the raising of taxes to fund national obligations, while non-Muslims continue to shoulder the burden.” This is laughable! How can such a statement be true when these products are available to every individual, irrespective of their religious leanings and will be traded by the Barclays, CBAs and KCBs of this world? This is not religious zamzam water being availed in mosques only. These are financial products available in the market for all Kenyans. How is it then that the non-Muslims will be subsidising the Muslims? Gai! Second, who says non-interest based financial transactions are based purely on Islam? It is not Islam only that prohibits interest and usury. Christianity and Judaism also condemn it. The Bible condemns interest and usury and one would expect a bishop like Oginde to know this. In fact after the recent global financial crisis, Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Newspaper published an article extolling the merits and successes of Islamic banking and voiced its approval of Islamic finance. It asked banks to look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis. “The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service” it wrote. May be Bishop Oginde is more Christian than the Pope himself. Furthermore, would not a Christian bishop having issues with an ethical based financial arrangement not give the impression, albeit a subtle one, that the conventional interest-based financial institutions that many Kenyans detest today, are indeed Christian? Why would a bishop, of all people, have a problem with any system meant to ensure people are not exploited and taken advantage of, just because it is the brainchild of another faith? If Kenyan Christians want to establish banks or products that go with their ‘no usury’ Christian principle, why wouldn’t that be welcomed by even say the Muslims? Bwana Bishop, we Muslims have absolutely no problem with Saturdays and Sundays being rest days, not to mention the many other Judeo-Christian based laws of our constitution. Finally, Bishop Oginde thinks Kenya’s plan to join the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) is a well calculated move to Islamised the country. What he ignores is that many other countries, like Ghana and even our neighbour Uganda, with negligible Muslim population, are already in it. Kenya, like these other countries, wants to join IOC for financial not religious reasons. It wants to access loans from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). Such loans will benefit all its citizens. People like Oginde would probably opine that Kenya does not need the IDB since it is ‘Islamic’. They would rather we take loans from the IMF and the World Bank because these institutions in their misconstrued judgments are ‘Christian’? Countries such as the UK, China, Japan, US and South Africa, which have minority Muslim populations, have amended their legislation to accommodate these products. Even the World Bank recognises Islamic finance as an effective tool for financing development worldwide, including in non-Muslim countries. It is an industry with $1.5 trillion in assets and Kenya cannot ignore it. Kenya needs an integrated financial system with deep and efficient financial markets capable of improving financial inclusion and wooing international investors from all corners of the world. Before the introduction of Islamic banks and Islamic windows in the conventional banks, we had a deliberately unbanked citizens who did so in order to maintain their religious sanctity. The proposed reforms in the Finance Bill 2017 are meant to attract this group. They are also geared towards attracting investments from the Islamic axis of the liquidity rich Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, open up investment opportunities in our financial institutions and ultimately create jobs for Kenyans of all faith. These are the reasons behind the amendments being made to the several finance related laws in the Finance Bill 2017. Bishop Oginde should see these issues in terms of their substance and not in their identity.