Saudi Islamic finance assets 26 % of GCC total

Saudi Arabia’s Islamic financial assets of $94 billion represent 26 percent of the total in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and 8.2 percent globally, according to a report by Deloitte. The Shariah-compliant bond market in Saudi Arabia is considered the third-largest in the world after Malaysia and the UAE, said the report, issued Thursday and entitled “Empowering Risk Intelligence in Islamic Finance.” The research from Deloitte Middle East Islamic Finance Knowledge Center noted the importance of the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank. It said the multilateral lender had dispersed more than $200 million in technical support to almost 70 institutions since in 1975. IDB sold $800 million of five-year Shariah-compliant notes on June 19 at a yield of 1.357 percent, a record low for corporate issuance. Orders totaled $900 million. Average yields on GCC Islamic bonds, which pay returns on assets to comply with Islam’s ban on interest, dropped 12 basis points to a 10-month low of 3.73 percent this week, the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai GCC U.S. Dollar Sukuk Index shows. From TheDailyStar