News From : DagangHalal.com (01 Jul 2010)
KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (Bernama) — The sukuk market saw positive developments in the aftermath of the global financial crisis with worldwide issuances increasing to US$23 billion in 2009 from US$19 billion the previous year.
Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) chairman Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar said that US$9.7 billion of the total issuances came from Malaysia.
“This demonstrates continued demand for sukuk in general, although there will always be a continuing demand for sukuk by investors who are permitted to invest only in Syariah-compliant instruments,” she said at the Fourth International Islamic Capital Market Forum 2010 here Thursday.
According Zarinah, the growing interest in sukuk funds within the global Islamic fund management industry also indicates great potential for the continued growth of the sukuk market.
“The range of sukuk instruments available to investors in Malaysia is unparalled and these issuances come from a broad spectrum in issuers,” she said.
“The recent issuance of the Malaysian sovereign sukuk led to overwhelming demand with the issue being oversubscribed by almost five times with investors coming from the Middle East, Asia, the United States and other regions.”
This reinforced the acceptability of sukuk as a viable investment alternative, notwithstanding the challenges raised, Zarinah said.
“Among the challenges facing the sukuk market is that with a greater volume of issuances, there will be a need for common standards and methodologies for analysis to enable sukuk to migrate from being assessed by way of due diligence to being assesed through standardised financial analysis,” she said.
“Having saying that, a decace ago, no one would have imagined the growth we have achieved in the last 10 years.”
Thus, she added, developing relationships between jurisdictions and learning from peers’ experiences are valuable in efficiently moving towards a stronger Islamic finance industry.
— BERNAMA