Saudi Arabia contributed 8.2% to the global Islamic finance: IFKC

21 Jun 2012

(MENAFN) A recent study conducted by Deloitte Middle East Islamic Finance Knowledge Center (IFKC) put Saudi Arabia as a major contributor to the global Islamic finance, representing 8.2 percent of the total Islamic finance assets, Trade Arabia reported.

The study, entitled “Empowering Risk Intelligence in Islamic Finance”, also placed the oil-rich Kingdom on top of GCC contributors to the Islamic finance industry, with an estimated USD94 billion in Islamic finance assets, representing 26 percent of GCC’s total contribution.

The Deloitte report found that Saudi Arabia saw the launch of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in 1975, one of the first and most important institutions in the Islamic finance industry.

IDB has contributed over USD200 million of technical support to nearly 70 Islamic financial institutions around the world to date.

The Gulf Kingdom also saw the launch of other important institutions that played a vital role in the development of the Islamic finance including the International Association of Islamic Banks in 1977.

Saudi Arabia currently houses four Islamic Commercial Banks operating in the country with total assets of USD86.3 billion.

The Kingdom also saw cooperative insurance industry advance rapidly during the past 9 years, as there are currently more than 30 cooperative insurance companies with total assets of over USD7 billion, the report said.

The report also pointed out that Saudi Arabia is the world’s third largest sukuk market, after Malaysia and UAE, according to the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) Sukuk report.

The Kingdom saw the 25 sukuk issuances with a total of USD17.1 billion last year.

This year saw the single largest sukuk issue ever, issued from Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) in January; the size of USD4 billion on a Murabaha.

The report concluded that Islamic financial institutions and their systems of governance will continue to evolve as new regulations are issued.