IslamicFinance.de

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) has been granted an Independent Assurance Certificate of its Corporate Sustainability Report from Ernst and Young (E&Y). This certification came after meeting or exceeding all requirements of the certification criteria. Nadeem Shafi, the partner of (E&Y), handed the certificate to KFH's CEO Muhammad Sulaiman Al-Omar in the presence of a number of officials. The bank has been certified according to data and information related to the bank's sustainability performance, internal protocols, processes and controls related to the sustainability performance data and information related to the workforce. Moreover, environmental data, achievements and awards as well as training and community development initiatives, were also taken into consideration. E&Y sustainability assurance team also visited the company's corporate office to gain confidence in the data and selected claims presented in the report.

According to a study of Ernst and Young, there will be three times higher demand for Islamic bonds (or Sukuk) till 2017. It is also assumed that this year could be the biggest year for Sukuk as the supply is close to demand. The Continuing standardization by Islamic finance organizations should help Sukuk securities to grow in long-term, analysts says.

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A successful roll-out of Islamic banking system could easily see the industry in Oman gaining up to $6bn in Islamic assets over next few years.
Global Shari'a-compliant assets are estimated to have crossed $1 trillion in 2010, growing at a sustainable 15-30% per year.
The Central Bank of Oman has permitted conventional banks to operate their Islamic banking business through a 'window' operation. The result therefor was that the market could see a number of conventional banks entering the Islamic finance space in the next couple of years.

Ernst and Young state that the market for Takaful will extend to $12 billion this year.
The quest for security
It was hard for Takaful operators such as Takaful EM to acquire a Shariah-compliant re-insurance. Because it had a large potential, leading reinsurers such as Munich Re, Swiss Re or Hannover Re created Re-Takaful. It appears that Malaysian Takaful operators are world leaders.
Swiss Re, the second largest conventional re-reinsurer worldwide, thinks that the breakthrough of Takaful has only began.
Takaful expansion challenges
Ghassan Marrouche underlines the fact that the challenges for Takaful are in human resources. As demands raise, new distribution channels become inevitable.