IslamicFinance.de

The latest region seen as having big potential for Islamic finance is the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), comprising eight countries plus Russia that until 1991 were part of the Soviet Union. Being home for a large Muslim population, especially in Central Asian CIS member states, the area is emerging as a new frontier region for Islamic finance as banking penetration is relatively low and demand for financing is strongly growing. In all these countries, growth is strongly dependent on production and export of commodities, not just oil and gas, but also coal, iron and precious metals, among others. This brings with it the need for huge infrastructure investments for the production cycles of those commodities, and also for processing and transportation.