Takaful And Retakaful Industry Show Rapid Growth

Bernama-- The takaful and retakaful industry continues to show rapid growth and is being increasingly recognised as a major component of the overall Islamic financial system.

The chief executive officer of the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia, Datuk Dr Adnan Alias said however,the retakaful business in Malaysia was�still limited in terms of capacity.

Therefore,�it�had a huge opportunity for further expansion.

"As far as takaful is concerned, the growth is very encouraging. But retakaful is�also catching up even if it was introduced later," Adnan said. �

Speaking to reporters at a recent briefing on the 6th International Islamic Finance Conference 2008 here from Oct 13-14, Adnan said it required specialised skills and knowledge of the risks being handled to further expand the takaful and retakaful business.

Currently, he explained, a large part of the retakaful business went to conventional reinsurers as local retakaful companies, lacked the expertise to handle such risks.

As for Malaysia, he pointed out that the takaful industry had a commendable track record since its inception more than two decades ago. �

The takaful funds stood at RM8.8 billion in 2007, an increase of about RM2 billion from the previous year. �The penetration rate was about 7 percent in 2007 compared to 5.9 percent in 2006, considered small since the opportunities abound.