Islamic finance seen adapting to new economic conditions

The Islamic Finance Development Report and Indicator (IFDI) 2017 was presented at the 24th World Islamic Banking conference 2017 held from December 4 to 6 in Bahrain. The report was commissioned by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and put together by business intelligence provider Thomson Reuters. The report uses five indicators to measure the development of the $2.2tn Islamic finance industry, which are quantitative development, knowledge, governance, corporate social responsibility and awareness. This year, Malaysia, Bahrain and the UAE kept leading the IFDI country rankings for the fifth consecutive year, while the GCC remains the leading regional hub for the industry. Oman remained unchanged on rank four, while Saudi Arabia dropped two notches to rank seven, and Jordan, Qatar and Indonesia fell one notch each to ranks nine, ten and eleven. The big newcomer is the small Southeast Asian sultanate of Brunei, which made a jump from rank 14 to rank 9.