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.
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.
The Banker launched its second annual Top 100 Chinese Banks listing in both English and Chinese on June 5 in Beijing. The event was attended by governor of The People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, who received his award as The Banker’s Central Banker of the Year 2007 in Asia, and by Pan Gongsheng, secretary of the board of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, who picked up the bank’s award for The Banker’s Deal of the Year 2007.