Islamic Financial Services
From The Report: Bahrain 2020
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As both a regional and global leader in Islamic finance, Bahrain benefits from supportive regulation, capable human resources, and a reputation for diversified and mature offerings. Demonstrating this, the Islamic banking and insurance segments have recorded elevated growth rates compared to their conventional counterparts in recent years, even as the industry faced macroeconomic headwinds. Islamic banks are well positioned to implement new accounting standards despite some anticipated near-term pains. The government’s efforts to promote and expand financial technology could bring additional benefits to Islamic financial services. From a sharia-compliant, blockchain-supported cryptocurrency exchange to open banking initiatives, Islamic offerings will continue to benefit from policies aimed at maintaining Bahrain’s competitiveness.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Setting the standard: A supportive regulatory framework and consolidation lead to the expansion of sharia-compliant offerings
OBG
plus

As both a regional and global leader in Islamic finance, Bahrain benefits from supportive regulation, capable human resources, and a reputation for diversified and mature offerings. Demonstrating this, the Islamic banking and insurance segments have recorded elevated growth rates compared to their conventional counterparts in recent years, even as the industry faced macroeconomic headwinds. Islamic banking assets continued on an upwards trajectory in 2018 and 2019, and banks are well positioned…

Analysis

Scaling up: Tools such as open-banking platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges are set to revolutionise sector services
OBG
plus

A number of innovations have supported the efforts of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) to transform the country into a leading regional centre for financial technology (fintech). These include several sharia-compliant solutions that could offer significant benefits to Bahrain’s growing Islamic financial services sector. Following the creation of a regulatory sandbox, a new open-banking interoperable platform is set to connect customers to both Islamic and conventional banks, with the potential…