Saudi Arabia said it would launch its new market for Islamic bonds, or sukuk, and bonds on Saturday, offering firms new sources of funding amid tight credit conditions.
Trading of bonds would run from in the mornings, the regulator said on the Gulf Arab state bourse's website.
"I believe this is a very important step forward since it will deepen the Saudi financial market," said Talaat Hafez, a member of the Saudi Economic Association.
Central bank governor Muhammad al-Jasser said in February commercial banks and firms seeking financing should tap more into the debt market with bond issues.
"The bonds and sukuk will create liquidity for financing needs, especially for what is known as the mega projects," said Hafez.
Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing huge development projects that will need $400 billion over the next five years but some foriegn companies have pulled out of projects struggling to secure funding.
It is a young industry and a growth industry, and continues to evolve and expand both financially and geographically. It is indigenous and community-focused: it caters to devout Muslims in indigenous Muslim societies as well as in Muslim minorities of non-Muslim countries. Furthermore, it is an inclusive paradigm: non-Muslim individuals and communities that seek ethical financial solutions have also been attracted to Islamic banking.
The first modern Islamic financial institutions emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, Islamic banking has spread to a large number of Muslim countries, including the GCC and the Arab world at large, South and Southeast Asia, and even Muslim communities in the West. Bahrain is considered a hub for Islamic banking, with significant activity also taking place in Kuala Lumpur and London. Islamic financial institutions have taken the form of commercial banks, investment banks, investment and finance companies, insurance companies, and financial service companies. They follow different banking models: private institutions in a conventional economy (as in the GCC and the West), attempts at national Islamic banking systems (as in Sudan, Iran and Pakistan), and dual banking models (as in Malaysia). They also take different forms: wholly Islamic institutions, Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banking groups, and Islamic banking windows within conventional banks.
This is an industry that is still evolving, developing and growing. It has gone from commercial banking to syndicated transactions and equities, and more recently, into debt issuance and structured products. Its sophistication and product offering have developed along with this change. At an earlier stage, industry growth was in part a reflection of economic growth in the Islamic world, fuelled primarily by oil wealth. This created a growing middle-wealth segment and hence made banking a necessary service to the larger segment of the population. In the past several years, increased awareness about Islamic banking has led to conversion from conventional banking and continued high growth (15-20% in key markets).
In Indonesia, the growth of Syariah banking has been phenomenal with a consistent above 48% asset growth annually since 2001 (since 2003, the growth rate has been above 94%). In 1997, the country had only one Syariah commercial bank. As of June 2005, there are now 3 Syariah banks and 20 Syariah Banking Units (these are conventional banks which have been granted Syariah banking licenses). This is expected to continue and to accelerate in the future as existing Syariah banks are expanding both their branch networks and their balance sheet.
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