Bahrain on top

Manama : Bahrain continues to stand out in the area of Islamic finance development bagging top ranks in the GCC and MENA regions. 

This is based on the Islamic Finance Development Indicators (IFDI) which is an annual barometer that represents the overall development of the Islamic finance industry worldwide.

According to the report, Bahrain leads the GCC’s Islamic finance development for the fourth consecutive year.

The report is jointly produced by Thomson Reuters and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector development arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). 

The report measures five key components that combine to depict the overall picture of the state of Islamic finance in a market – namely Quantitative Development, Knowledge, Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Awareness.

According to the IFDI, Bahrain is ranked first in the GCC and MENA regions, and second only to Malaysia out of 124 countries that contribute to the US$2 trillion Islamic finance industry.

Strong governance 

IFDI continues to rank Bahrain first globally in terms of Governance based on regulatory environment and governance mechanisms. The regulations cover Islamic financial institutions including Islamic asset management and Sukuk. Bahrain also has the most effective Shari’ah governance measures as indicated by its top ranking in Shari’ah Governance sub-indicator.

Solid performance 

According to IFDI, Bahrain is among the top ten countries for the other indicators as well. For the Knowledge indicator, its Islamic finance ecosystem is supported by 17 providers offering Islamic finance related education including universities and institutions. 

Bahrain hosted 20 Islamic finance related events in 2015, the report points out while that adding that the industry was covered by 1,582 exclusive news articles.