Islamic Finance: Banks Have Their Work Cut Out
Siow Li Sen
This article in the StraitsTimes reports that although Islamic finance is growing at an estimated 15 per cent a year, bankers in Singapore are doing little to seize the opportunity for growth. The article goes on to mention how Malaysia has established itself as the region’s Islamic financial center, as Islamic banking is becoming more popular in Southeast Asian countries because of its certainty and principles, which prohibit usury, or the charging of interest on loans and its ethical and equitable mode of finance is derived from the syariah (Islamic law). But despite that fact that economic growth, fueled mainly by oil wealth in the Islamic world, translates to an estimated US$250 billion in Islamic finance, Singapore still remains reluctant to take on the marketing and development risks of offering more Islamic finance products.
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