Islamic Economy

Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui indicated last fortnight that the central bank will closely examine impacts and risks of the development of Islamic finance on the pricing mechanism in the global financial market.
“The key to addressing (the risk management) issue would be consistency with conventional risk management and regulatory frameworks,” Fukui said at the opening of the Islamic Finance Seminar held in Tokyo .
“This is a matter of great importance for the coexistence of the Islamic finance system with conventional financial markets and systems, and for providing beneficial diversity to the global financial system,” he added.
He also noted that stress tolerance can only be acquired through experiencing crises in financial markets and systems, he said.
Motivating the bank to study more about Islamic finance may be an ongoing trend where Japanese companies join other Western and Asian firms in tapping petrodollars in the Middle East and other Muslim nations, by selling bonds that strictly adhere to Shariah, or Islamic law.
(Source: Dow Jones Newswire)

A three-day international conference on Islamic economy will be held here from April 1. The Seventh International Conference on Islamic Economy is to be organised by the King Abdul Aziz University under the slogan “Thirty Years of Islamic Economy Researches, Solutions and Applications for Contemporary Economic Issues.” The conference will bring together numerous economists, business leaders, entrepreneurs, thinkers and journalists from across the world and will be a forum for Islamic economists, bankers and financiers to discuss the intricacies of Islamic finance and examine the dynamic nature of Islamic economies. They will present working papers and scientific researches in the meet. The three-day conference will examine the findings of numerous studies in Islamic economics to counter challenges posed by the modern world and help poor Muslim countries stabilize their economies with the surplus wealth of richer countries. “The conference is the largest gathering of scientists from various countries in the world,” said Osama Al-Khoraiji, head of the organising committee.

The First International Conference for Islamic Bonds (Sukuk) was held here last fortnight.. The conference was opened by the Central Bank of Bahrain, deputy governor, Anwar Khalif Al Sadah. There was a consensus view at the conference that the Islamic bond market has suffered from the global financial crisis triggered by the US sub prime crisis, but it is in good shape to bounce back.
In his opening speech, Anwar Khalif Al Sadah said Bahrain was the first country to issue sukuk and it had now issued more than $1 billion of these instruments. Islamic sukuk have become one of the fastest growing financial instruments in the world, Investment Dar, chairman and managing director, Adnan Al Musallam told delegates at the opening session.
He said sukuk worth more than $15 million were being used to social projects and added that the value of the sukuk market was worth around $120 billion, including $47 billion from the Gulf. More than 170 delegates and speakers attended the two-day event, which attracted people from across the Arab world and as far away as New York, London and South Africa. “The credit crisis has impacted Islamic finance both in pricing and access and a lot of sukuk supposed to be launched towards the end of last year were put on hold until there is more calm in the market place,” said Dow Jones Islamic Index global director, Rushdi Siddiqui. “The sukuk market has seen tremendous growth in the last two years and that will continue. Bahrain is the banking and financial centre of the Middle East and is in the forefront of the future of the sukuk,” he added.