Islamic Finance

REGIONAL REPORT: Gulf Cooperation Council   Financial services firms in the GCC region are poised to take advantage of an impending global recovery.   By Gordon Platt     The global economic and financial crisis arrived late in the six ...

REGIONAL REPORT: Gulf Cooperation Council   The UAE economy is well on the road to recovery, one of its biggest boosters says.   By Gordon Platt   Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, speaker of the house of the Federal National Council, ...

Global Finance selects the winners in a fast-growing area of finance that combines investing according to the tenets of Islamic law with modern financial products and systems.   By Laurence Neville For a brief moment it seemed that the world ...

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US-based private equity firm, received a license to operate from the Dubai International Financial Center.   By Gordon Platt   The building in which the firm, whose 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco was chronicled in ...

MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL REPORT RECESSION PROOF Saudi Arabia epitomizes the trend toward big spending on infrastructure by oil-rich nations that is keeping their economies afloat. By Gordon Platt The Middle East is not immune to the effects of the global ...

MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL REPORT   In Dubai and other financial centers around the Middle East, there are increasing signs that prudence and a focus on Islamic financing are paying off.     Sulaiman: Middle East economy is in a better ...

SECTOR REPORT SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS A series of disastrous investments in Western banks and mounting pressure to invest locally is prompting a sea change in sovereign wealth funds’ investment attitudes.   Dickinson: Some SWFs are facing pressure to diversify their ...

ASIA-PACIFIC     Asia looks to cash in on its emerging Islamic financial center status. The Asia-Pacific region already accounts for 60% of the world’s Islamic banking assets and could be a center of growth for the shariah-compliant finance industry ...

MIDDLE EAST Determined to avoid repeating past mistakes, oil-rich nations in the Middle East have worked hard to diversify their economies. So far they have fared well, but pitfalls remain.   Oil is integral to the Middle East's economic fortunes, ...

MIDDLE EAST         Safa: Credit crunch could boost sukuk in the longer term. Asudden slowdown in the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, could be the result of the global credit crunch, a ruling by a committee ...

BACK TO BASICS ISLAMIC FINANCING The core ethical principles of Islamic finance have protected the industry from the worst effects of the credit crunch.   A customer makes a transaction at Emirates Bank in Dubai. One segment of the financial ...

REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / ECONOMIC UPDATE     Currency pegs could come unglued as the region’s economies heat up.       Just when it seemed that it couldn’t get any better for the oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation ...

REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / COUNTRY PROFILE: QATAR   Qatar has plenty of gas for the long drive to becoming a knowledge-based economy.     Doha's constantly changing skyline illustrates Qatar's rapid growth.   Qatar has the world’s third-largest reserves of ...

REGIONAL REPORT: GCC / CAPITAL MARKETS The region’s biggest exchanges, in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are ready for liftoff.     Al Sowailim: Saudi Arabia offers great opportunities for global investors.   The volume of initial public offerings on ...

ANNUAL SURVEY / ISLAMIC FINANCE Global Finance selects the winners in a fast-growing area of finance that combines investing according to the tenets of Islamic law with modern financial products and systems.   Islamic finance is a system of ethical ...

SECTOR REPORT / ISLAMIC FINANCE The range of Islamic finance techniques is growing rapidly, but some are concerned that the most innovative products may be flouting shariah principles.   While conventional financial markets are still reeling from the credit crunch, ...

The Middle East Prudent investment of vastly increased oil revenues and a determination to build stable financial foundations are helping transform the Middle East into one of the world’s most vibrant economic areas. The DIFC in Dubai: One of the ...

Middle East As Islamic bonds become more popular, banks are creating a viable secondary market.   Emirates Islamic Bank: Reaping the benefits of a surge in business. Asurge in the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, and growing demand from ...

Middle East Lebanon’s banks are spreading their wings as they push for more growth in the Middle East’s key markets.   Banks in downtown Beirut: Lebanon's financial institutions are expanding through the region. While the banking sector remains the backbone ...

SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS Sovereign wealth funds snap up bargains in one of the biggest financial industry land grabs in history.   Bader Al Sa'ad, head of Kuwait's SWF, helped arrange a huge cash infusion for Citi. To say Citi and ...