Oman’s Islamic finance segment looks well placed for strong expansion in 2014, after the government launched a sharia-compliant stock index in July 2013. Already home to more than 30 listed companies, and expected to witness promising investment in the coming years, the Muscat Securities Market Sharia Index (MSMSI) will allow the sultanate to...
With a steady stream of new entrants in the past decade and growth from a small base, Oman’s insurance market is a competitive one. A new set of entrants is set to arrive in 2014 following the approval of a legal framework for firms offering takaful (Islamic insurance), which will bring sharia-compliant alternatives to conventional...
At a conference in Riyadh in May 2012, Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al Zayani, the secretary-general of the GCC, addressed the numerous changes that have taken place in the region in recent years. “The new political, security and military challenges – as well as insecurity in the Arab region and the changes in the regional and global forces of power...
With the introduction of Islamic financial products, regarded as allowing the sultanate to retain valuable investment dollars, the emergence of new takaful (Islamic insurance) firms raises the question of how new insurance providers can thrive in a small market.
Recent regulatory changes aimed at Oman’s banking sector are likely to cause significant shifts in the lending market in 2014, with potential impacts including increased credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and perhaps a broader jump in the pace of loan growth and the competitiveness of the lending market. The changes are...
Petroleum wealth in Oman means the government has little need to sell bonds, which is the primary reason a robust market for debt securities has yet to develop. While the sultanate does sell bonds from time to time, the amounts are usually small and there are no regular schedules for any instruments other than short-term debt used by banks to...
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