| Global Race For Islamic Finance Hub |
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There is a global race going on to become hotspot # 1 for Islamic Finance. Not only big cities trying to be on top, but even smaller regions trying to get a piece of the cake. At the end there will not only be one hotspot, there will be many. And this is good news for all Muslims!
Islamic Finance Centre - Dubai But let us start with bit of history. The first bank operating according to Shariah-principles (we wouldn't actually call it an Islamic bank) started around 45 years ago. However the Islamic Finance sector started to take off only around 5-8 years ago. According to our projections and given that growth rates of around 20 % per year will persist this makes around 7,440 Islamic Finance institutions like banks, takaful companies,... worldwide in 2020. Everyone wants to be the Islamic Finance centre # 1. By screening the news we came across headlines like for example Singapore aims at Islamic capital markets hub or DIFC (Dubai, author) will be Islamic finance hub, Bahrain emerges as Islamic investment banking hub. This seems something really big as we all know that we're talking about international cities with an international reputation as a financial centre, rooted in an Islamic environment. Even many small regions trying to establish an Islamic banking sector and undertake big efforts in order to get in top league. You will find headlines like Plans to make Shah Alam International Islamic banking hub or Mauritius: Emerging Islamic Finance hub and Scotland is emerging as new hub of Islamic finance etc... Guess many do not even know where all theses cities and countries are located nor that they are in any kind related to Islamic Finance. However if we compare these headlines with our directory listings we find there is only a few hotspots of Islamic Finance which is:
What do we call an Islamic Finance centre? Most of all there has to be a relatively high number of Islamic Finance companies offering Shariah-compliant products and services. Secondly it has to be located in an Islamic and financial environment and culture, otherwise there will be no prospects for growth. No matter who is going to make the race, the winner will be Islamic Finance itself and most of all its customers. Because a higher network coverage and competition means lower prices, more products and better services. And so far customers were restrained by missing branches and only limited products. This seems to change in the near future.
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