Thomson Reuters Launches Next Generation Islamic Finance Gateway
Available at: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Thomson-Reuters-Launches-Next-Generation-Islamic-Finance-Gateway-1117102.htm

Thomson Reuters today announced that it has launched its next generation Islamic Finance Gateway to guide the emerging industry to the next stage of growth and development.

Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters, said, “Despite its image as an emerging industry, Islamic finance has now grown to be worth around US$1trillion and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway truly opens up this world of possibilities and opportunities for financial market participants and professionals. The conventional, western finance industry is accustomed to clean, crisp, robust information, real-time news, connectivity to communities and the ability to act and transact with trusted counterparties. By providing these ‘must have’ features the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway demonstrates the industry’s true breadth and makes the transition for all to Islamic Finance a seamless one.”

The Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway is a global, neutral platform and directory consisting of details for and links to Islamic finance professionals, rating agencies, industry standards bodies, Islamic finance hubs, index providers, consulting firms, 400 Shariah scholars and Islamic subsidiaries from over 25 countries. Reuters Messaging is embedded within the Gateway to foster communication and create the connections required to build and grow communities.

Available on its flagship Thomson Reuters 3000 Xtra desktop, The Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway improves transparency through lower information search costs and provides greater global connectivity and insight into the industry’s opportunities.

By bringing together neutral, intelligent, Islamic, ‘trading-ready’ finance information and analytics on a common platform, the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway addresses the complete Islamic Finance work-flow.

Market professionals will now be able to access comprehensive, trusted multi-asset class information on a wide range of Islamic finance instruments such as Sukuks, Islamic leveraged loans, funds, Islamic money market, Takafol and currencies; alongside embedded real-time news stories from Reuters, and correlation analytics for Islamic versus western conventional market views. The Gateway will also include news of related industries to Islamic finance, like the $641 billion Halal food sector.

The rich data and breaking news is complimented by a global rolling tickertape of Islamic and conventional indexes, multi-currency real time inter-bank conventional versus Islamic inter-bank rates, an information fund supermarket(1) and click-through links to Gateways for the; Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and G-20 countries.

A unique heat map of Shariah-compliant and Shariah-based companies developed by IdealRatings, creates a diverse universe of publicly listed companies. The Shariah-compliant companies are screened according to global index providers’ methodologies, plus Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and Malaysia’s Securities Commission. The Shariah-compliant companies are screened by various economic sectors and regions. They are complimented by more than 100 publicly listed Shariah-based companies in regions and countries like GCC, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and the UK.

The global Islamic finance community can take the Thomson Reuters ‘trading-ready’ information one step further, by turning ideas into action. Publicly listed Shariah-based and screened companies and Islamic or commodity ETFs can be traded over the Thomson Reuters Trading for Exchanges (TRTex) platform, which has been integrated within the Gateway.

Basil Moftah, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Thomson Reuters, said, “Islamic finance is an important part of our Middle East growth strategy, and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway will not only address the Islamic banking industry’s needs, but will also enhance our ties to the greater MENA region.”

“Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control.” Martin Luther King

Best Regards
ZULKIFLI HASAN
DURHAM, UK

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