Saudi Arabia’s strong fundamentals mean that bank exposure to the credit crisis has been limited, and the mood among bankers is bullish. Writer Nadine Marroushi.

Better disclosure, improved corporate governance and further progress in devising sharia-compliant derivatives are among the crucial requirements. By Shamshad Akhtar.

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 Top 15 countries in the world by sharia-compliant assets (SCAs) are determined not only by the size of each country’s financial sector but also the degree to which it is sharia compliant.

The Top 500 Islamic financial institutions in the world have amassed sharia-compliant assets of $500.5bn according to The Banker’s first comprehensive listing of the Islamic finance industry.

Long-term viability and sustainability will come from increased interoperation between sharia-compliant financial institutions throughout the world, says Joe DiVanna.

Islamic finance has established solid roots in the Gulf states, Malaysia and Indonesia and is set for a roll-out to the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, with all the challenges that this entails. 

With huge assets under management and a growing population of issuers and investors, the Islamic investment market is being taken increasingly seriously. Natasha de Teran looks at how derivatives are being used to create Sharia-compliant products.