Malaysia eyes 25 pct share in Islamic banking

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News Available at: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=malaysia-eyes-25-pct-share-in-islamic-banking-2011-09-19

Malaysia aims to capture 25 percent of the market share in the Islamic banking and finance sectors by 2012, according to an expert speaking in Istanbul.

“Islamic banking and finance has experienced substantial and unprecedented growth in recent years, growing at a rate of 10-15 percent annually,” Mehmet Asutay, the director of the Durham Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance at British-based Durham University, said Monday in his opening speech at the Durham Islamic Finance Autumn School 2011 in Istanbul.

Malaysia aims to capture a quarter of the market share in the Islamic banking and finance sector in terms of assets owned by 2012, while it is expected that Islamic finance will become the mainstream financing method in the Gulf region within the next decade, Asutay said.

More than 500 Islamic banking and finance, or IBF, institutions operate worldwide and are estimated to manage assets worth at least $1.2 trillion, compared to less than $10 billion in 1985, Asutay said. Amid the current financial crisis, which has engulfed the entire global economy, the IBF industry has shown relative resilience without undergoing major difficulties despite the fact that it is very much integrated with the global finance worldwide, according to him.

The Durham Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance has contributed to the field of Islamic economics, banking, finance and management through teaching and research over 25 years, Asutay said.

The Durham center is holding the Islamic Finance Autumn School 2011 between Monday and Thursday in Istanbul in cooperation with the Istanbul Foundation for Research and Education and the International Technological, Economic and Social Research Foundation. The gathering is supported by Istanbul Commerce University, the Participation Banks Associations for Turkey and the Alliance of Civilizations Institute of Fatih Sultan Mehmet University.

Regards
ZULKIFLI HASAN

With Dr. Mehmet Asutay, Reader in Political Economy and Islamic Finance, Durham University in Srebrenica, Bosnia