Posted on 09/11/2007 4:07:07 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's financial secretary has ordered regulators to study how to reconcile Muslim financial rules with local laws in hopes of launching a market for Islamic bonds, according to a speech transcript reviewed Tuesday. Secretary John Tsang said he hopes to promote Hong Kong, a popular stock market for Chinese companies, as a gateway for Middle Eastern investment in China, according to transcripts from a Monday speech at a financial conference.
"Islamic finance is an important element of the global financial system," he said. "For Hong Kong to be a major international financial center — not just in the region, but globally — then Islamic finance must be among our portfolio of products and services."
Islamic finance is governed by Islamic law, or Shariah, which bans the collection of interest, trading in risk and investing in gambling, pork and alcohol businesses. All are components in virtually every global market.
While conventional bonds are based on the legal relationship between borrowers and lenders, Islamic bonds are structured as business transactions. Instead of issuing interest, they revolve around rental payments and dividends. It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the financial heft of Islamic financial markets.
Tsang said the international Islamic financial market is worth $1 trillion and is expected to grow 15 percent annually.
He has said that more than 300 Islamic financial institutions in more than 75 countries hold assets of more than $300 billion. Islamic business units of international banks manage an additional $400 billion, he said.
Tsang said he visited Malaysia last month, a major center for Islamic bonds, to study its Islamic financial system.
Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, chief executive of Malaysia's CIMB Islamic Bank, said it makes sense for Hong Kong to get into Islamic financing.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneynews.newsmax.com ...
When I read the title quickly, I thought it said “bomb market.” I guess it was kind of like a freudian slip....
No better time to pull our dollars out of that market...
Understandable.
I happen to own a book titled “Islamic Banking” which I snagged at Barnes & Nobles one day while browsing.
A more convoluted set of contortions one has never read. See they cannot charge interest, the basis of the banking system. So instead the have a lot of other ways to do the same thing in the end.
Its like that word quiz, where they insert a different word than the one you are accustomed to seeing, and your mind sees the word that is usually there.
;-)
What a great new security to short.
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