IslamicFinance.de

The Bahrain-based International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) will develop contract templates for sharia-compliant corporate finance and trade finance transactions, as the industry body expands its mandate. IIFM is aiming to double the number of its standards by as early as next year. The new standards would help broaden the scope of IIFM, as the body works to harmonise industry practices, said Khalid Hamad, executive director of banking supervision at Bahrain's central bank and IIFM chairman. Trade finance has remained a marginal business for Islamic banks even as other areas have boomed in recent years, partly because of a lack of scale and expertise compared to larger and more established Western banks.