First CSR-Oriented Islamic Finance Survey

A first-of-its-kind Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) survey on Islamic finance institutions is currently being undertaken by two leading Islamic finance industry service providers, DinarStandard and Dar Al Istithmar. Read more

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Socially Responsible Banking?

By Daniel Chandranayagam

As the year turns just fourteen days old, more and more people and businesses are turning to centuries old religious tenets for the regulation of their financing. Professor Bala Shanmugam of Monash University Malaysia was reported recently to have said,

Islamic finance is also known as socially responsible banking because we tend to think of what the consequences are of this. It’s not just lending money for the sake of lending and making profits off of this.

Understandably, with crumbling financial markets, an ethical financial framework based on fairness sounds desirable. As such, the growth of Islamic Finance in institutional finance markets is unsurprising. In November 2006, Ethical Corporation reported that hydrocarbons conglomerate, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, issued a three billion Saudi riyal (USD800 million) Sukuk, Islamic Finance’s equivalent of a bond. At that time, it was also stated that Kuwait Finance House was to issue a USD200 million Sukuk for a Chinese company financing expansion of a power plant. Read more

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