As the Qatari economy has contracted in recent years, the country's banks have developed their own niches in order to remain profitable in what has become an increasingly competitive market.

As Islamic finance continues to grow and the market matures, the products and services it provides continue to innovate and impress. The Banker rewards the best of these in its Islamic Bank of the Year Awards 2014.

Islamic banking already has a strong presence in Kuwait. With a number of innovative lenders competing in the sector, and support and regulatory oversight from the country's central bank, it looks as though the industry can only become a more prominent fixture on the country's financial landscape.

Hussein Al Qemzi, group chief executive officer of Noor Investment Group and CEO of Noor Islamic Bank, believes that Islamic finance has the potential to evolve beyond its niche market and become the globally accepted norm in banking. But before it can do this, it must diversify its products and services, as well as achieve greater standardisation.

With sharia-compliant investments outperforming their 'conventional' counterparts, appetite for these products can only be expected to grow. But the industry is still too fragmented, according to Ian Lancaster of Cogent Asset Management, with a lack of cross-border connectivity preventing it from achieving critical mass.

Three senior figures from the Islamic finance industry discuss how sharia-compliant project finance has fared in 2013 after a stellar decade, and look at its prospects – with a particular focus on sukuk – for 2014 and beyond.