Islamic banking needs regulatory framework for growth

Vital to unleashing its real worldwide potential.

Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Islamic Bank, is advocating a comprehensive, effective regulatory framework in the many countries where Islamic finance is practiced.

“Without such support, opportunities to scale up cross-border initiatives will be limited. The real growth potential of the industry could be three to four times what it is today,” he said

He noted that Malaysia has the most liberalized and conducive market for Islamic finance, one which all other markets in the world should aspire to be.

He said sukuk has outpaced conventional bonds in terms of growth and the same can be said about Islamic financing in the banking sector in Malaysia.

“I don’t see this trend changing. We will see a lot of infrastructure and development projects which require funding source and sukuk has become a popular choice. As such, we see a healthy deal pipeline at CIMB and expect to end this year on a high again.”

CIMB Islamic’s total Islamic financing assets grew 22% to RM36.3 billion and total Islamic deposits rose 23% to RM38.9 billion.

CIMB Islamic was recently named the first winner of the Global Islamic Bank of the Year and Asia-Pacific Islamic Bank of the Year by The Banker, the world’s longest running international banking publication.