The MENA market for sukuk,or sharia-compliant bonds, has seen an impressive recovery since the onset of the global financial crisis led to a sharp dip in Islamic debt issuance. After peaking at $19bn in 2007, the value of the region’s annual sukuk offerings settled at about half that in the following three years, according to KIPCO...
As Qatar’s Islamic financial services (IFS) sector expands, options are multipling for investors wishing to deploy their assets in a sharia-compliant manner. A key development in this regard came in 2013, when the nation’s stock market, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), teamed up with Al Rayan Investment, a subsidiary of Qatar’s second-largest...
It has been another strong year for Qatar’s Islamic financial services (IFS) companies, which have continued a well-established trend of outpacing their conventional rivals in terms of growth. The nation’s IFS sector has emerged as one of the region’s most vibrant, comprising a rapidly expanding Islamic banking segment, an array of Islamic...
Despite having one of the lowest non-performing loan (NPL) rates in the region, the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008 came as a reminder to Qatari lenders of the vulnerability of some areas of their loan books to economic distress. The high levels of personal debt in the GCC were of particular concern to regional regulators and many...
It is easy to discern the fresh momentum in the drive to boost the private sector and, more particularly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Qatar. A number of recent developments indicate the government’s determination to create a more balanced economy for the hydrocarbons-rich state: the appointment in January 2015 of the minister...
A rapidly expanding population and a steady supply of hydrocarbons and infrastructure projects have allowed Qatar’s banking sector to maintain the double digit growth it has achieved over recent years. However, while the project pipeline remains full, the increasingly competitive banking environment has encouraged the nation’s lenders to seek...
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