The Banker’s Islamic Bank of the Year Awards for 2017 portray an industry that is experiencing a stable, if no longer meteoric, rise on a global level. Though many of this year’s entrants have still posted growth numbers that exceed their conventional counterparts, their performances are, for the most part, beginning to moderate in line with wider market norms. This partly reflects the natural maturation of the Islamic finance market in more established jurisdictions. But it also accentuates the material impact that lower commodity prices have had on some of the industry’s headline economies.
Although this year’s winners exhibit the usual mix of innovation and growth that is required to scoop an award, the judges took note of a number of other promising trends. For one, Islamic banks are playing a more prominent role in facilitating the development of secondary sukuk market liquidity. With ever-greater global reach, many banks are now trading and issue sukuk across multiple jurisdictions, helping to advance the internationalisation of this aspect of sharia-compliant finance.
