Just as conventional finance, Islamic finance has been vulnerable to fits and starts, to severe and disquieting hiccups whenever sound economic rules are being ignored. Last year showed how intertwined its future and health is with what happens to the global economy, and for that reason, the performance of an economy will significantly affect the growth of Islamic finance, says CIMB Islamic CEO Badlisyah Abdul Ghani. He considers the Islamic finance industry lucky not to have been involved in subprime credit and not to have been heavily engaged in highly leveraged activities.
Badlisyah contends that whichever financial or fiscal problems that the GCC countries have been facing of late do not have a significant bearing on the stability of Islamic finance in this part of the world.
Considering the clear restrictions placed on the use of derivatives on Islamic transactions, Badlisyah does not believe that the ability of Islamic banks to manage their risk has been constrained or compromise