West meets East

摘要

There was a time when religious restrictions meant that Islamic finance was a limited affair. Recently, however, all sorts of sophisticated financial products have sprung up that conform to at least some interpretations of sharia (Islamic law). On October 20th, the Bahrain Monetary Agency announced that Citi Islamic Bank and its American parent, Citigroup, would arrange a $250m Islamic bond issue, its first to be offered to investors outside the Gulf. Sharia Funds, another American outfit, is working with Islamic scholars on the first fund of hedge funds compliant with the Koran, to be launched by December. HSBC is set to offer Islamic insurance products in Britain next year.