Walid Aradi discusses why Dubai is well positioned to as a financial hub for international Islamic finance Recently, Tahseen Consulting’s Chief Executive Officer, Walid Aradi, spoke with Philip Moore from Emerging Markets regarding his views on the emergence of Dubai as a global Islamic finance center. In a wide-ranging discussion, Aradi explained the competitive factors that Dubai has going for it as well as highlights the negative impact skills shortages and gaps may have on the evolution of the industry in the UAE.

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Home :: ISLAMIC FINANCE CENTRES: Cities vie for sukuk leadership status
ISLAMIC FINANCE CENTRES: Cities vie for
sukuk leadership status
09/10/2014 |
Dubai wants to win the race to become the go-to financial hub for international Islamic
finance but it has many rivals, including London, Luxembourg, Kuala Lumpur and Hong
Kong. EM takes a look at the runners and riders
When Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed sets his sights on
doing something, he generally succeeds. Witness the
growth of Emirates, the airline created by the Dubai
government in 1985, which is now among the largest
in the world. Or the growth of Dubai airport, which is
reportedly on track to eclipse London Heathrow as the
busiest international airport by 2015.
As with aviation, so with financial services and Islamic
banking. Building on the success of the Dubai
International Financial Centre (DIFC), the Dubai
government aims to be the leading hub for the shariah-compliant
capital market, establishing the Dubai
Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) in
December 2013.
Bankers say there has been a clear push by the
government to support local sukuk issuance. “Most of the borrowing by the government as well as
by government related entities (GREs) has been in Islamic format, which is clearly helping volumes
to reach a level that cements Dubai’s position as the key player in the sukuk market,” says
Mohammed Dawood, global head of sukuk financing at HSBC in Dubai.
Walid Aradi is CEO of Dubai-based Tahseen Consulting, which has researched the competitive
credentials of Middle East financial centres. He believes Dubai has at least three advantages over
other regional centres and further afield.
“Dubai has the necessary political backing for its Islamic financial industry and it has legislation
which is generally aligned with Islamic law, which is not always the case in other financial centres,”
says Aradi. “The fact that there are large and liquid pools of Islamic investment funds in the Gulf is
another advantage for Dubai.”
But what may frustrate Dubai’s ambitions, says Aradi, are bottlenecks in human resources.
“Although Dubai boasted the first Islamic bank in the world, with the establishment of Dubai Islamic
Bank in 1975, many of the product innovations and regulatory best practices in the industry have
been established elsewhere,” he says. “The biggest challenge Dubai faces is attracting and
developing a suitable workforce to keep pace with its growth as an Islamic finance hub. While it has
a number of executive training and higher education institutions targeting mid-level employees in
the Islamic finance sector, the UAE has been slow to develop programmes targeting new entrants
and senior level industry leaders.”
Others say that in the context of the Islamic capital market, Dubai has been successful in attracting
more than enough professional talent to support its growth as the main sukuk hub in the Middle
East. “A lot of human capital now sits in Dubai,” says Dawood. “As well as banks, most of the
leading law and accountancy firms have established a presence in Dubai.”
Dawood adds that in any case the growth prospects for the sukuk market are such that the Middle
East can accommodate a number of financial centres contributing to rising diversity and liquidity in
the sector.
That will encourage other centres that are eager to position themselves as focal points for the
further development of the sukuk market, with Doha one obvious competitor in the Gulf.
With sukuk attracting conventional investors, intermediaries and (in some cases) issuers, these
hubs need not be confined to financial centres in Muslim-majority countries.
Among the financial centres outside the Muslim-majority nations of the Middle East and Asia, the
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2. UK remains the focal point for the development of Islamic banking.
THE OUTSIDER
London’s credentials were enhanced in 2013 when it was chosen to host the ninth annual meeting
of the World Islamic Forum — the first time that the event was held outside Asia or the Middle East.
According to a recent report published by TheCityUK, there are now six fully shariah-compliant
banks operating in the UK, more than in any other European economy. The same report points out
that Islamic finance has been used in the financing of London landmarks such as the Shard and the
Olympic Village, as well as in the redevelopment of Chelsea Barracks and the iconic Battersea
Power Station.
More specific to the sukuk market, notable landmarks in London’s recent history include the listings
on the London Stock Exchange of the GE Capital sukuk in 2009, which was the first by a US
corporate, and of the issue from Kuveyt Türk, the first by a Turkish bank. In 2010, meanwhile,
International Innovative Technologies (IIT) became the first UK corporate to list a sukuk in London.
Although the Irish Stock Exchange stole a march on London in 2013, with 15 sukuk listings, the
recent landmark in the development of the UK as a centre for Islamic finance was this year’s long
awaited sukuk issue by the UK itself, which brought the total raised in London in the sukuk market
to $38bn in 54 issues. The £200m sukuk, say market participants, epitomised the UK government’s
commitment to remaining at the forefront of the global Islamic finance market.
“The UK has been more prepared than many European countries to modify its legislative and tax
code in order to accommodate Islamic finance,” says Farmida Bi, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright
in London.
DUCHY AND ORIGINALS
Luxembourg, too, is positioning itself as a key European centre for Islamic finance and has been
given an important vote of confidence by the backers of Eurisbank, Europe’s fully-fledged Islamic
bank, which chose the Grand Duchy as the location for its headquarters.
Of all the world’s centres for Islamic finance, however, none has been more explicit about its
ambitions than Kuala Lumpur, with the growth of shariah-compliant financial services a pillar of
government policy in Malaysia. Bankers say that while Kuala Lumpur has emerged as the regional
hub for the sukuk market in southeast Asia, until recently its focus has largely been on building the
domestic Islamic capital market rather than focusing on its potential as an international financial
centre. According to data published by Moody’s, international issuance in Malaysia accounts for
less than 10% of the $178bn in total outstanding sukuk, a share which is unlikely to change much
over the short term.
“Malaysian issuance volumes will remain dominated by local currency transactions in the near
future, driven by the country’s large and deep base of domestic institutional investors as well as the
government’s supportive policies towards Islamic finance,” notes a Moody’s report.
A recent trend has been that this deep pool of institutional liquidity has allowed overseas issuers to
access the sukuk market, in ringgits and other currencies, significantly strengthening Kuala
Lumpur’s credentials as an international hub for the Islamic capital market.
Indeed, the striking feature of recent non-Malaysian sukuk issuance is the geographical diversity of
its provenance. Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi (BTMU), for example, has announced plans to issue the
world’s first yen denominated sukuk in Malaysia alongside tranches in ringgit and US dollars.
More recently, Türkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi issued an M$800m ($248m) sukuk out of its ringgit
Murabahah programme, the first of its kind from a Turkish issuer.
This bodes well for Malaysia’s ambitious Kuala Lumpur International Financial District project. Now
a 70 acre expanse of wasteland in the centre of the Malaysian capital, this could be transformed
over the next decade into the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), which its developers claim will develop
into southeast Asia’s answer to Canary Wharf.
Moody’s comments in its report that it expects Malaysia to remain the world’s largest sukuk market
for the foreseeable future but regional competition will develop over the next two to three years.
None of the emerging sukuk hubs in the region, however, will build anything approaching the critical
mass needed to challenge Kuala Lumpur’s leadership. “We expect the market fragmentation to
continue amid increased competition as a growing number of new and emerging sukuk issuance
markets such as Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong pass new legislation and roadmaps in a
concerted effort to tap into this fast growing market,” says the agency.
FIRM FAVOURITES
Based on the size of Indonesia’s Muslim population, Jakarta is an obvious candidate to establish an
Islamic finance hub. The Financial Services Authority in Indonesia, where there are 11 dedicated
Islamic banks, is drawing up a five year roadmap for the development of a range of shariah-compliant
financial services including sukuk issuance.
Based on their pedigree as financial centres, however, Singapore and Hong Kong look likelier hubs
for the issuance and trading of sukuk. “Singapore and Hong Kong both have their own competitive
advantages as financial centres,” says Ahsan Ali, managing director and head of Islamic origination
at Standard Chartered in Dubai. “For example, Singapore has the advantage of being the private
banking hub for the Asian region while Hong Kong is obviously the gateway to Greater China.”
Chinese growth is going to be "at
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than the predicted 7.4%
Harvinder Sian, head of European macro strategy, RBS

3. Of the two, Hong Kong appears to be the more committed to developing its capabilities as a
shariah-compliant hub, with the sovereign’s sukuk designed as a significant step in the process.
Peter Pang, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), was clear about
Hong Kong’s ambition as an Islamic financial centre when he spoke about the government’s plans
in the sukuk market at a conference in April.
“As an international financial centre and given our unique role as a gateway to China, Hong Kong is
well positioned to provide an effective platform to channel the surplus funds from the Islamic world
to this part of the world where there is a huge financing need to sustain the high growth of the Asian
economies,” said Pang.
“Our platform will enable Islamic investors to access investment opportunities in Asia, particularly
China, while at the same time allowing fundraisers to tap into the liquidity pool in the Islamic world.”
Rather than regard Hong Kong as a competitor, the Malaysian central bank has publicly said that it
regards the SAR as a key partner in helping to develop a stronger and more liquid Islamic capital
market in Asia. This may take the form of multiple listings. “We expect to see more issuers following
the example of the Islamic Development Bank, which opted for a triple listing in Dubai, Kuala
Lumpur and London for its recent $1.5bn benchmark,” says Ahsan at Standard Chartered.
Jamaica is getting back on track and could
become an unlikely poster child for the IMF.
However, elsewhere in the Caribbean the threat
of default looms and some countries are not
ready to ask for help
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