Two stories on Islamic Finance

Two interesting Islamic finance articles:

First on the growth of Islamic finance. From the BBC:

"The dramatic growth of Islamic banking and finance appeared to have been confirmed during the recent World Economic Forum in Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt.

One of Germany's biggest banks, Deutsche Bank, announced a joint venture with Ithmaar Bank of Bahrain and Abraaj Capital of Dubai to launch a $2bn (£1bn) Sharia-compliant financial fund.

More and more conventional international banks, such as Citibank, HSBC and UBS, are converting some of their services to interest-free Islamic finance models.

Estimates of the value of Islamic banking internationally range from $200bn to $500bn."

And secondly on England's desire to be at the forefront of this movement (again from the BBC):

"Chancellor Gordon Brown is to pledge support for the growth of Islamic finance, saying the UK can act as "a gateway" for the growing industry.

He will tell the Islamic Finance and Trade Conference he wants to the make the UK a centre for Islamic investment.

He will call for stronger trading links between the UK and Muslim countries as well as global trade reform."

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