Takaful firms search for long-term assets

* username: rupertbu

The Islamic insurance industry, or takaful, is struggling to find suitable long-term investment opportunities, executives at the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit said.

The takaful -- or sharia-compliant -- insurance industry has grown at double- or three-digit growth rates so far as the Gulf Arab region is underpenetrated with insurance products in general, and has also attracted business from conventional peers.

But issues like the absence of long-term sukuk, or Islamic bonds, to compliment some of the products are hampering the process of asset deployment.