Up to US$15 billion (Dh55.09bn) of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, have been shelved since the onset of the financial crisis because the specialised debt instruments became indistinguishable from conventional bonds, an Islamic banking expert says.
New issuance of sukuk had completely dried up because Islamic banks were structuring them incorrectly from the start, said Sohail Zubairi, the chief executive of the Dubai Islamic Bank unit Dar al-Sharia, which advises on how to structure Islamic financial products.
“We lost at least $10bn to $15bn since the onset of the crisis – I’m talking about the second half of 2008,” Mr Zubairi told Reuters.
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