The global Islamic banking and financial services industry will receive a boost on October 13 when experts, academia and industry players meet to put on their thinking caps and find ways on how to bolster the sector further. Themed “Innovation in Islamic Finance: A Fast Track to Global Acceptance,” the sixth International Islamic Finance conference 2008 in Kuala Lumpur is set to attract over 300 participants from over 10 countries.
The global Islamic financial services industry has trebled in the past decade and is now reportedly worth around US$531 billion (RM1.8 trillion).
According to Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board and Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank, the industry including banking assets may grow to US$2.8 trillion (RM9.7 trillion) by 2010.
Monash University director of banking and finance unit (school of business) Professor Bala Shanmugam said the conference provides a platform for industry players to meet and and discuss critical issues and ideas relating to Islamic banking and finance.
He said the global banking arena is undergoing turmoil as a result of the credit crunch due to the subprime crisis with several mega banks such as Citibank, JP Morgan, UBS and its latest victim the US fourth largest investment bank Lehman Brothers having to write down billions of assets in their books.
“Outlook for Islamic finance is very good because the sector was not affected by the subprime crisis because the industry is conservative in their investments,” Shanmugam added.
Islamic Financial Advisory
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Identifying opportunities, avoiding risks, dealing with, threats and developing a strong core business are, all important in achieving business objectives along, with considering Sharia’a compliance. Cambridge’s risk, professionals help clients to identify, analyse and, control risk. Global leader enterprise risk management, our service offering covers the areas of strategy, operations, reporting and compliance across an entire business including people, process, technology and data.
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This department includes, among others, the following relevant services lines to Sharia’a investment funds:
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This service line is involved in the launch of new investment products, and is to be considered as a very efficient guide for new comers to the Luxembourg jurisdiction. We assist with the prospectus definition and team up as a partner throughout the fund set-up phase. Thanks to our “one-stop-shop” fund registration service, we are able to assist the registration of UCITS as well as non-UCITS funds in foreign jurisdictions from the beginning of the procedure until the maintenance of the fund registration in target markets. This service has been of great support to fund promoters distributing their products on a pan-European basis. - Investment compliance, business compliance & regulatory issues
Through cold testing processes of investment objectives and the investment universe of the funds, we can assist Sharia’a boards and fund directors in their ongoing monitoring of the investment portfolio. We may also provide resources to assist with the processing of the income purification calculations. - Fund service providers selection (custodian and fund administrator)
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Our in-house corporate-legal experts, familiar with the Islamic finance principles, provide strategic solutions regarding the implementation of investment vehicles in Luxembourg, including financial instrument issuance, drafting of prospectus, co-ordination and representation in front of the Luxembourg financial supervisory authority.