Islamic Finance has been on the western radar most recently as oil money rich countries seek out returns for their capital. Fortune has a broad swath of information about sharia complaint finance.
Islamic finance is booming.
At least $500 billion in assets around the world are managed in accordance with Sharia, or Islamic law, and the sector is growing at more than 10% per year. In spirit, Islamic finance seeks to promote social justice by banning exploitative practices. In reality, this boils down to a set of prohibitions — on paying interest, on gambling with derivatives and options, and on investing in firms that make pornography or pork. No one can say for sure how many of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims will demand Sharia-compliant financial products, but if even a fraction do, the world’s largest banks will be happy to oblige
Here is a series of articles they prepared on the subject:
I expect this area to be an immensely high growth area for i-banks et al because although it is only a sub-section of the investing dollar, it is increasing.
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