The Securities Commission (SC) together with Citigroup held a global shariah dialogue themed “Recent Trends in the Sukuk Market” in Kuala Lumpur on March 6 in an effort to strengthen the country’s Islamic capital market (ICM).
SC said in a statement the dialogue have brought together Shariah scholars worldwide and market professionals to foster greater interaction and collaboration among each other to address issues faced by the Islamic financial services industry.
Delivering her welcoming remarks at the event, SC chairman Datuk Zarinah Anwar said with the increasing internationalisation of the sukuk market, the local industry must benchmark and comply with global standards of compliance, transparency and governance.
“It is our hope that dialogues like this would promote greater cross fertilisation of Shariah views so as to facilitate the smooth development of ICM globally,” she added. Malaysia is currently the top sukuk issuer, commanding 67% of the world’s sukuk market.
In 2006, 27 out of 64 sukuk approved by SC were globally accepted using the musyarakah, ijarah, istisna’ and mudharabah principles. In value, sukuk structured on the musyarakah concept contributed RM29.4 billion or 70% of total approved sukuk in the country.
Together with Bank Negara Malaysia, the SC said it looked forward to reinforcing the country’s global leadership with upcoming joint frameworks on the issuance of non-ringgit sukuk by multilateral development banks and financial institutions, sovereigns, and quasi-sovereigns and multinational corporations.
SC also believes that moving forward, the ICM's development would be largely industry-driven, with other supporting infrastructure and regulatory frameworks already in place.
“We hope to see more government-linked companies, multinational companies and major public listed companies come forward to structure new and innovative Shariah-compliant financial products, which will contribute to the promotion and growth of our ICM,” added Zarinah.