Taxes are fundamentally involuntary contributions towards the costs of providing civil services. Years ago, on a trip to Istanbul, my companion and I visited the tomb of one of the Ottoman rulers. At the entrance, an amount by way of contribution was suggested. Either the sign was out of date or I read the value […]
In the recent past, news about various Islamic finance initiatives in Africa made it on the business pages across the world, indicating that the continent is gearing up for a new form of banking. The Economist in a July article even called Africa “Islamic banking’s new frontier,” and the Malaysia International Islamic Finance Centre (MIFC) […]
Global economic volatilities, consistently low oil prices and reduced demand for credit are among the factors that currently weigh on the Islamic financial service industry, the recently released IFSB Industry Stability 2017 Report by Kuala Lumpur-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) suggests. The study says that 2016 marked another year of slower growth amid adverse […]
Islamic finance is still a nascent industry in Azerbaijan, even though the country’s large Muslim population base indicates great potential demand for its products and services. Nevertheless, efforts have been made to promote Islamic finance in Azerbaijan. Today, several banks in the country offer a narrow range of services based on Sharia’a (Islamic law) principles […]
By Arno Maierbrugger/Gulf Times Correspondent/Bangkok A lot of things are currently going on with regards to Islamic finance in Southeast Asia, one of the core regions for Shariah banking, although it was so far mostly confined to Muslim Malaysia and, partly, Indonesia. This […]
Arno Maierbrugger/Gulf Times Correspondent /Bangkok The world’s most populous Muslim nation, so far a laggard in developing a comprehensive Islamic finance industry, took a big leap towards the creation of a supportive framework for Shariah-compliant banking on July 27. It was the day […]
Although between 85 and 90 percent of the Indonesian population is Muslim, Islamic banking, also known as sharia banking (financing activity that is in line with Islamic principles), remains underdeveloped in Indonesia. In 2016 sharia banking assets only accounted for 5.3 percent of total assets in Indonesia’s banking sector. Meanwhile in countries like Saudi Arabia […]
Islamic finance is an unconventional financial system which has witnessed impressive growth over the last decade. In 2015, the business represented $4.5 bn in the UK. Global Islamic investments have increased by 150 per cent since 2006, and according to estimates, the sector is growing 50 per cent faster than the overall banking sector. At the 2013 World Islamic […]
Many market development and regulatory efforts have taken place in the African region in recent years as there is a clear set of potentials for Islamic finance to play a role in African countries to diversify their sources of funding. As the world’s largest untapped growth market for Islamic economy, Africa is expected to attract […]
In the Islamic-finance world, real estate has always been, save for a few exceptions, a perfect asset class. You have a property that is occupied by a tenant. That tenant pays rent in exchange for the right to use and occupy that property. Once that rent is paid to the landlord, the landlord uses the […]
IN 2008 Ethiopia’s conservative central bank experimented: it authorised interest-free banking. Interest is prohibited under sharia law, so the move was lauded as a step towards expanding financial services for the country’s large and often poor Muslim minority. But momentum soon stalled. An attempt to launch a fully-fledged Islamic bank foundered. Today most of Ethiopia’s […]
By Arno Maierbrugger/Gulf Times Correspondent /Bangkok The Philippines’s southern Muslim region of Mindanao wants to use an Islamic finance-backed scheme to raise funds in order to recover and rebuild Marawi City which has been severely damaged in almost two months of violent […]
