Islamic Capital Markets and Risk Management: Global Market Trends and Issues

This report gives a truly complete overview on both risk management and Islamic investments, which makes it an extremely valuable tool for conventional investors, as well as for Islamic institutions and other interested readers. This is appropriate for researchers, consultants, and policy-makers faced with an increasing complexity of Islamic instruments. Islamic Finance has been expanding strongly all over the world during the past few years and shows significant product innovation and sophistication. Shariah-compliant products have proven to be attractive also to non-Muslim investors and offer many opportunities, even for non-Islamic institutions. This is due to the fact that up to 50% of the total savings of the Muslim population worldwide are projected to be invested in a Shariah-compliant way within the next five years, making it an extremely fast growing business worldwide. Furthermore, Islamic instruments are highly useful alternative investments for the diversification of portfolios, as they have low correlation to other market segments, allow the selective underweighting of particular sectors and seem to be relatively independent even from market turbulences like the subprime crisis. As a consequence, the increasing standardisation for derivatives and Sukuk (Islamic bonds), as well as the growing liquidity and organisation of the Islamic capital market offer many opportunities to innovative investors. On the other hand, risk management of Islamic financial products is a hot issue, still little understood in many aspects, where both conventional and Islamic institutions are facing significant challenges when measuring and managing risks. Risk management is getting more attention all over the world due to the subprime crisis, and for most Islamic financial institutions, risk management presents specific challenges. This trend is also highlighted by the fact that GARP is currently jointly developing with the Banque du Liban a first-of-its-kind Certificate in Risk Management for Islamic Financial Institutions due to be launched in late 2008. The Islamic capital market is reaching an important peak of sophistication: almost all conventional products can be readily replicated in a Shariah-compliant way, even the most complex structured products, which is not desirable according to many experts in the industry. This excellent guide will provide you with the necessary information you need to understand Islamic capital markets and current risk management issues effectively in order to operate within this growing market. Review This report is a very useful guide on recent developments in Islamic capital market and risk management in Islamic finance. It is therefore highly recommended for new entrants to Islamic financial services industry and an excellent addition to the Islamic library. The book first treats Islamic financial products and then provides an in-depth analysis of all existing risks associated with these instruments. As a result, a truly integrated and complete view on this class of Islamic financial instruments is given. --Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain<br /><br />Islamic Capital Markets and Risk Management has brought out the fundamental principles in Shariah in very clear terms, making it easy to comprehend why Islamic instruments and products must be so structured in order to be Shariah-compliant. It has also articulated the risks involved in the operations of such instruments and products which will indeed make the book very useful for existing and potential practitioners in Islamic and conventional financial institutions. --Datuk Dr. Syed Othman Alhabshi, Chief Academic Officer & Dean of Faculty, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia<br /><br />It is my sincere hope that industry professionals, whatever their persuasion, will gi