Rise of #Islamic #finance meets #human #capital #gap
The strongly growing popularity of Islamic banking and Islamic finance and its increasing global spread has led to a considerable undersupply of talent in this sector. Both the Middle East and Southeast Asia, but also new regions currently adapting to the alternative finance system such as in Africa and Central Asia are effected.
Estimations are that there is a shortfall of between 8,000 and 10,000 in main Islamic finance fields in Gulf Cooperation Council countries alone, plus more in peripheral sectors such as law and regulatory affairs, financial technology, insurance and others. Altogether, as the industry continues to grow, at least 56,000 people will be needed to serve the Islamic financial sector in the coming years, according to the Finance Accreditation Agency of Malaysia.
“Islamic banking assets in six core markets – Qatar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and Turkey – are estimated to reach a combined asset volume of $1.8tn by 2019,” says Dr. Amat Taap Manshor, the FAA’s CEO. “But the human capital meant to support the industry is still in its infancy, and shortages will be felt most acutely in the capital market sector,” he added.
Government agencies tasked with the development of Islamic finance in their respective jurisdictions are called upon to focus on skills development and make it one of the priorities of their initiatives. Many have already done so, for example the Bahrain-based Islamic Corp for the Development of the Private Sector, which set up its ICD Islamic Finance Talent Development Program, or several initiatives in Malaysia, including programmes at the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia, the International Center for Education in Islamic Finance, the International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance and the Asian Institute of Finance, a think tank jointly established by the Central Bank of Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia, to enhance human capital development and talent management across the financial services industry in Asia
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