Bankers review Islamic financial services market

The growing Islamic financial services market has been reviewed in detail by four leading Bahraini banking figures.
The review in a round table forum appears in The Report: Emerging Bahrain 2007, published by the Oxford Business Group (OBG).

The round table is contained in a chapter on Islamic financial services, the first-ever in the Bahrain annual publication, and the Islamic roundtable discussion is also a major first.

"This expanded and directed coverage is vital to investors, with the growth of Islamic banking in the region," said OBG country director Elise Postigo.

"It is a major OBG innovation, and the new chapter is featured as a response to subscriber feedback, which asked for more intense coverage on Islamic banking."

"In the last seven years or so, the sector has been growing at a very steady pace," said Bahrain Islamic Bank chairman Khalid Al Bassam.

"There have been more entrants into the market and this has led to a higher standard in the industry.

"Islamic banks have been recording good results so this has helped their equity base to undertake larger transactions."

"Many newly licensed banks in the region are Islamic and the industry is steadily growing beyond the Muslim world, to such places as the UK," said Albaraka Banking Group president and chief executive Adnam Ahmed Yousif

"Islamic finance is becoming more sophisticated so growth should continue at a fairly rapid rate."

Unicorn Investment Bank, managing director and chief executive officer, Majid Al Refai said he had not found a shortage of qualified Islamic bankers in Bahrain.

"On the contrary, I think that Bahrain has one of the most highly skilled workforces in the region in terms of banking in general and Islamic banking in particular," he said.

"Having said that, it's important for all of us working in the industry to continue to make it attractive for Bahrainis to enter the sector and to provide all entrants to the industry with solid training and career development opportunities."

"The shortage of skilled Islamic bankers is mainly a Western phenomenon, where the industry is still nascent," said Gulf Finance House chief executive Esam Janahi.

"Having said that, in Bahrain, the education system is evolved and there is also an active training and internship programme offered by the BIBF, in association with the University of Bahrain, the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) and other conventional and Islamic financial institutions in the kingdom.

"Most institutions run their own independent internship programmes. For example, at Gulf Finance House, we have an ongoing programme for graduates under the name of the Ibda'a Graduate Programme."