Despite miserable markets and falling sukuk issuance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) pushed ahead with its inaugural sukuk bond in February. Many took this as a sign of the seriousness of Singapore's ambitions to develop itself as a regional Islamic finance hub to rival Malaysia. Heng Swee Keat, managing director MAS, says the move is to ensure that Singapore remains a dynamic financial centre.rn"We are an international financial centre with a very global investor base so we needed to respond to the development of Islamic finance," says Mr Heng. "We see increasing flows of trade, investment and capital between the Middle East and Asia, and the ability for banks operating in Singapore to offer a full suite of financial services, including those that are sharia-compliant, will allow us to facilitate this flow."
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