Islamic economics growing in strength

With an estimated $1.2 trillion in assets in 2012, Islamic banks have now developed in size and capability to such an extent that they can participate in financing major infrastructure projects either through direct financing or through facilitating the issuance of sukuk , said Chief Executive Officer of the National Commercial BankAbdulkareem A. Abu Alnasr. "Today, countries all over the world are turning to Islamic capital markets for financing, and most major international financial institutions are active in Islamic banking," Abu Alnasr, told the English daily "Arab News" Monday. Experts estimate that the sukuk market will grow 66% in 2012 to over $44 billion compared to $26.5 billion in 2011. Moreover, in the GCC, statistics show that over the past 6 years the share of Islamic finance in the total project finance market has doubled from 12.5% in 2006 to over 25% in 2012. "We are happy that NCB has been central in supporting this activity by leading Islamic finance deals in the GCC with commitments exceeding $ 7 billion, an estimated one-fifth of the entire global Islamic project finance portfolio," said Abdulkareem who assumed charge as the bank’s CEO in January 2006. In addition to being the bank’s CEO, Abdulkareem is also a member of the board of directors and the executive committee and a number of other board management committees as part of the bank’s robust governance structure. He is the vice chairman of Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi, the leading participation bank in Turkey.