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Islamic finance seen as a real point of convergence between the East and the West. Hasan AlJabri, CEO of SEDCO Capital participated in the Global Ethical Finance Forum which was hosted by the Scottish Government and in cooperation with the UK Islamic Finance Council.
The forum which took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, brought together thought leaders and executives from the ethical finance industry to ‘discuss untapped opportunities and spur convergence and collaboration’. The forum was officially opened by Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia and HRH Emir Muhammad Sanusi II, Emir of Kano.

Under the title “Growing the global ethical finance industry through collaboration and convergence”, AlJabri pointed that although there are many different forms of responsible investments, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), and Islamic Finance, they all emerge from concern about the social and environmental consequences of investment practices, and a desire to ensure that investors make a positive contribution to the societies in which they operate to create sustainable economic development.
In response to a question asked at the seminar on the convergences between Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Shariah compliant investments, AlJabri responded: “Islamic finance operates under principles in line with the Shariah law, and has a lot in common with ethical finance, since it excludes certain industries such as tobacco and alcohol. There is a clear alignment between these two areas, in terms of their origins, their implementation and their potential contribution to society. This inspired us to create a new concept called “PEI” (Prudent Ethical Investing) where all the Responsible Investments & Environmental, social and governance variables are included adding to it the “prudent” aspect which we derived from our Sharia investing guidelines.