We are back after a month filled with journey (the OIFI team has been travelling of late: Malaysia, Jordan, UK, UAE and more to come) and correspondingly our fourth installment incorporates content from all corners of the globe. We begin by exploring the potential synergies available across the industry (and whether it is in need of a catalyst to spur further growth and collaboration) in our editorial piece.Complementing this is our Featured Resource section which outlines a variety of country and regulatory perspectives on Islamic finance, exhibiting how approaches can differ widely from one country to another. While some of it is positioning, they are testament to the importance being placed on Islamic banking and how regulators are hard at work trying to address and incorporate it into their existing financial architecture.
Nevertheless this is not just a case of mere talk--what is transpiring beyond the boardrooms of IFIs is in fact very energetic discourse that is gradually developing into a tangible initiative. There is great expectation that this can take the shape of an industry-wide effort (resilient to commercial interests) and one which we look forward to reporting in the near future. Indeed we explore the roots of this initiative in our Discussion Board as we borrow the topic from our online forum: 'Does Islamic Finance Need a Voice'.
In this edition OIFI dives deep into multiple asset classes: The Featured Structure section tackles Islamic REITs and the apparent underutilization of liquid real estate products. Khalil Khoury of KIPCO Asset Management Co. provides his perspective on the investable universe of Shariah compliant products in the Allocator Interview section. We further investigate what might be in store for indexation products in our Fund Manager Interview, as we converse with Saeid Hamedanchi of Florentez Investment Management. To round it out, our Industry Snapshot profiles the latest research undertaken on Islamic equity funds, as we hear from the team of Andreas Hoepner, Hussain Rammal and Michael Rezec.
Further expanding on his Lex Islamicus column, Khalil tackles arbitration and enforcement in Islamic contracts - with particular relevance on the revitalized sukuk market. On the other hand, Nikan surveys the various currents of thought on existentialism in Islamic finance under the Opinion Column - with a compendium of views that are not only contrary to the mainstream but possibly test the resolve of Islamic Bankers. But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
As always, we welcome your comments & suggestions (you can also feedback directly to the authors), and we remind our registered readers that you have free access to the entire archive of Opalesque Islamic Finance Intelligence (including back issues) and Opalesque Islamic Finance Briefing (our daily news summary), an ever-growing historical data bank of industry news and articles.
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