gulfnews : Alternative to the western finance model gains favour

From September 19 to 23, Toronto hosted the massive Swift International Banking Operations Seminar (Sibos) event from Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), where I was involved in the session called ‘Islamic Finance 2.0: Growth Opportunities for All'.

There were a number of interesting takeaways from the session that may provide insights on the marketing and positioning of Islamic finance in ‘open minded' western countries, such as Canada and the Arab spring countries.

While presenting Islamic finance in non-Muslim countries, it is described to be ‘similar' to conventional finance in terms of the economic objectives and benefits while de-emphasising the Arabic terminology (form). This is a diametrically opposite approach of positioning it in Muslim countries where it appears to be hyper-sensitive to the linkage and similarities to conventional finance.

* username: rupertbu