Regulation: Further development needs a common rule-book (FT Islamic Finance Special Report 2:4)

There may be calls for a tighter regulatory structure so as to rein back the potential for a repeat of the excesses that led to the global crisis, but experts in Islamic finance have been calling for a more joined-up approach to kick-start their industry.

It has been an age-old debate in Islamic finance: how to mesh and formalise the various regulations surrounding the industry to allow it to reach its full potential.

Experts say the various centres of Islamic finance, the east Asian version based in Malaysia, the emerging hubs of Bahrain and Dubai in the liquidity-rich Gulf and the practitioners promotingsharia-based finance in the established financial centre of London, need a more standardised suite of products to allow the industry to go truly global.