IslamicFinance.de

The UNEP Finance Initiative Global Roundtable 2016 was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai. The panel of Islamic bankers and investors highlighted that the heart of sustainability lies in ethical business practices such as those espoused by Islamic financing. The experts mentioned that most Islamic institutions were under increasing pressure to integrate environmental impact and sustainability into their decision-making process. CEO of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Tirad Al Mahmoud, said ethics themselves were the answer to everything. He added that financial regulators often failed to properly apply incentives and disincentives, and suggested ethical investments could be rewarded by discounts on capital. Panellist Nida Raza, Director of Advisory Services at the Islamic Centre for Development of the Private Sector, said she believed Islamic finance bodies must become more inclusive.

Managers of Islamic endowments with $105 billion in assets want to provide Shariah-compliant funds with the chance to capture new business by seeking to diversify out of bank deposits
Ernst&Young state that assets held by Islamic funds have stagnated at around $52 billion since 2008.
Nida Raza has the strong oppionion that islamic endowment institutions should diversify their real- estate holdings into government sukuk and other products.

Emirati housewife Sarah Alzarouni brushed past a group of women clad in floor-length black robes, some with only their eyes showing, to enter through the frosted doors of one of Dubai Islamic Bank’s women-only branches.
Clutching a Louis Vuitton bag to match her designer head scarf, Ms. Alzarouni greeted the female tellers and bank manager with three kisses on the cheek and sat down to do business.
Financial institutions in the conservative Gulf Arab region, where many women are reluctant to mix with men outside their families, are tapping into the niche, with women-only bank branches and investment funds mushrooming.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam where unrelated men and women are not allowed to mix, is leading the charge.
Industry experts say more women need to participate in the Islamic banking industry at senior levels to help grow products that appeal to a female clientele. But while the finance industry remains a boys club around the world, the glass ceiling is lower in the Middle East.