The Top 25 country ranking of the Top 500 Islamic institutions clearly demonstrates that Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are by far the three largest countries providing Islamic finance, with Iran’s total amounting to $154.6bn of sharia-compliant assets (SCAs) accounting for 30.9% of the global aggregate total of $500.5bn.

The financial services sector in Saudi Arabia is benefiting from new policies aimed at attracting foreign investors, and creating a more sophisticated market, write Nadine Marroushi and Jon Marks.

How profitable are Islamic financial institutions? With Islamic instruments and different reporting standards in some cases, direct comparisons with traditional western interest-bearing instruments have often been difficult to make.

In this vibrant young industry, many new players are emerging. The combination of huge liquidity in the Gulf region from oil prices in excess of $80 a barrel and the attraction of new opportunities through Islamic finance has led to a large expansion of Islamic institutions both in the Gulf and elsewhere.

Islamic finance covers many areas and in this exercise The Banker did not want to exclude any Islamic financial institution. Clear definitions of what constitutes a non-bank institution need to be improved but we wanted to include not only investment banking operations and Islamic investment companies, as distinct from banks, but also Islamic insurance operations.

The Islamic finance industry is rapidly evolving and expanding, with growth of banking assets estimated at $750bn and growing at a rate of 15% to 20% a year. Nabeel Shoaib explains.

How fast is the Islamic finance industry growing? The Banker attempts to answer this question with the launch of a new listing: Top 500 Islamic Financial Institutions. The pioneering role of the listing is to provide a benchmark for the future, which can be improved on for the good of the industry. Better disclosure is expected to flow from the publication of listings such as this as greater competition puts pressure on institutions to increase transparency in this area. Stephen Timewell and Joe DiVanna report.

Personal loans have been a significant chunk of the credit market in the Gulf in recent years, with volumes being driven high by oil prices. Andrew Cunningham predicts slower growth prospects for the near future.

Finance is taking over from oil as the fuel that drives the engine of economic growth in the Gulf region, reports Stephen Timewell.