Islamic finance moves into the mainstream

It has taken a while, but Islamic finance is now comparable to conventional markets, some specialists argued at the final day of the Global Islamic Finance Forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The issue was one of the themes discussed as the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre gathered a first-class group of the industry’s leading practitioners and scholars to hold one last discussion on the global outlook for Islamic finance services and the development of a common framework for practitioners.

Data compiled by CIMB and released yesterday show that in the 18-month period during the financial crisis September 2007 to May 2009 Islamic stocks outperformed conventional stocks by 7.2%. On a total return basis the...