The growth of Islamic finance is outpacing almost every other business segment of the global banking system. Sharia-compliant banking for Islamic retail clients was introduced only a decade ago (corporate banking has been around a lot longer), yet the past four years have seen exponential growth of the business, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where 95% of all retail banking transactions are now done through Islamic banking institutions. Other markets with a vast potential, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, are moving dynamically through a development stage. The Malaysian and east Asian markets show a great deal of promise, as they tend to be highly sophisticated with a more developed infrastructure than the Middle East and a more liberal sharia interpretation.
At the retail end, there is already a flourishing array of products available to Muslim customers. The offering includes sharia-compliant home and auto finance, current and savings accounts, debit and credit cards and investment products such as equity funds, property funds and capital-protected funds.
