Mr. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), said the Islamic banking opportunity cannot be overlooked by globally-active financial institutions.

Appropriate conduits of investment are needed for the liquidity-rich GCC region, which will continue to experience robust economic growth for the foreseeable future.

Also, Shari’a-compliant investment tends to be less volatile as it requires thorough scrutiny of a product, he said pointing to the fact that Islamic banks have come out unscathed from the US sub-prime crisis.

Mr. Al Maraj was speaking today during a meeting at the CBB with a team of top management executives and board members of leading Japanese financial institutions.

The 11-member team from Japan is currently on a visit to Bahrain and the region to explore business opportunities. Institutions represented in the team included Sumitomo, Sony Life Insurance, Chuo Mitsui Asset Management, Mitsui Life Insurance and Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management.

Mr. Al Maraj briefed the Japanese team about Bahrain’s expanding financial services industry and CBB’s role as a regulator, offering to provide CBB expertise in Islamic banking to Japanese institutions interested in exploring the Islamic finance opportunity.

He also provided an understanding of the broad economic and political reforms being undertaken by the Kingdom.

Also present were a number of senior CBB officials.