The Concept Of Islamic Finance
The Concept Of Islamic Finance Article Submitted by: Daniel Collins Tuesday, 11 January 2011 Islamic finance is a relatively young but fast developing area of finance. Although the concept behind it is as old as the religion itself, the modern Shari'a banking and investment industry really took off in the 1960s with the launch of the Social Bank in Egypt. It took approximately forty years for Islamic Finance to reach the $1 trillion threshold of assets under management. However, many experts predict that the $2 trillion figure will be reached in less than five years and it has even been estimated that the market could potentially be worth at least $5 trillion as the industry continues to expand globally. Among those $1 trillion worth of assets, it is important to keep in mind that only 25% is invested. Indeed, $750 billion is totally liquid and ready to be invested, giving rise to a lot of opportunities for innovations such as Islamic investment funds. Another factor th...