Comment: US helps sukuk bounce back

The sukuk, or Islamic bond market, has been severely tested over the past 18 months. After five years of growth in issuance, size and investor appetite, last year saw a contraction of 50 per cent in the value of sukuk issued. The second half of 2008 and the first quarter of this year saw the market effectively closed.

While governments and investment-grade corporates in North America, Europe and Asia were issuing record amounts of bonds in the first and second quarters of this year, their Middle Eastern counterparts were also issuing – but in the conventional markets, not the sukuk market.

A well-publicised criticism of the mudaraba sukuk structure made by Sheikh Taqi Usmani, a prominent sharia scholar, in February 2008, is often blamed for the drying up of the market. Of more impact, though, was the global credit crunch that struck shortly afterwards.