Sunday 15 January 2012

gulfnews : Short-term liquidity worries will affect growth of industry

Here is a multiple choice questionnaire on how the Islamic finance industry performed in the past year and what may lie ahead for it in the coming months.
1. Has Islamic finance succeeded in meeting its objectives of financial inclusion, deriving profits from doing good and distributing wealth and eradicating poverty, since its birth 40 years ago?
a. No. Today Islamic fin-ance is about providing banking services to those who can afford them. Very little attention is paid to the needs of the majority of people, who require micro-financing and funding for small and medium enterprises, among others. An Occupy Wall Street- type popular movement is needed to push the industry into prioritising these objectives.
b. Yes, but slowly. The industry has just reached $1 trillion and cannot be expected to meet all its strategic objectives while still at an embryonic stage.

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