Dubai: it’s a ‘frontier market’ for a reason

Kudos to Zawya Dow Jones for keeping an eye on an evolving legal dispute between Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) and four businessmen.

Proponents and practitioners of Sharia-compliant finance are fond of trumpeting the safety, reliability and relative simplicity of their offerings. But as the Nakheel debacle demonstrated, the reality is these products are far from bulletproof (or risk-free). Crucially, Islamic finance is as vulnerable to the vagaries of human nature as its secular cousins.

Case in point: the $651m tit-for-tat involving the Dubai’s part state-owned and largest Shariah-compliant bank.