My view is that Shariah funds are the next growth area in the asset management business.

The perception is that Middle East investors prefer to invest this way and many institutions are required to. A large proportion of the world’s liquidity is in the Middle East so it would make sense to develop products that are attractive to these investors.

Many people consider the main global Islamic banking centre to be Bahrain, it always has been historically, but Malaysia is giving it some good competition. A significant amount of Islamic assets are now in Malaysia and Indonesia and this is often an underestimated or forgotten market. It is a growing market, as is Islamic banking and the products that go with it.

This is a specialist niche so it is important to use advisors and fund administrators with proven experience in this field. Are there specialist fund administrators in this field that focus on details such as delivering investor statements in Arabic?

I can only think of one.....

PH