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Tuesday March 11, 2008 http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/11/business/20601665&sec=businessMove to standardise rules for syariah-compliant products  KUALA LUMPUR: Scholars are moving towards standardisation of syariah-compliant financial rules although this may take time owing to the different schools of jurisprudence in Islam. There are four schools of jurisprudence in Islam – Hanafi, Maliki, Syafi’i and Hanbali. Yasaar Ltd chief executive officer (CEO) Majid Dawood said core standardisation was being carried out although it would take some time. “The differences between the schools of jurisprudence are being narrowed and while it will take time, technology will speed things up,” he said. Yasaar is an independent Islamic finance consultancy.
Majid said it was in the interest of those who wanted syariah-compliant rules to push for it, especially in light of the funds coming out of the Middle East due to the high price of crude oil. He was speaking after a luncheon briefing on Islamic finance in Asia organised by the FTSE Group, an index manager owned by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. Majid said Asia was experiencing a boom in Islamic financial services with growth at a rate in excess of 20% per annum. “The main growth concentration is in Malaysia, with several other South-East Asian nations and other Asian countries showing progress,” he said in his presentation earlier. Majid said in the Malaysian market, wholesale Islamic financial services under the corporate loans segment had grown 14.1 times compared with 2.9 times for the conventional banking system while trade finance expanded 32.5 times against 5.3 times and corporate fixed deposit grew 17 times compared with 2.3 times |
