gif Interview
What impact has Qatar Islamic Bank made on the Islamic financial asset management sector? One of the main contributions of QIB (UK) in the sector was to present innovative prod- ucts such as:
• QIB (UK) Global Sukuk Plus Fund: today the largest in the market and one of the first pure Sukuk funds in the market.
• Islamic Financial Institutions Fund: one of the only funds invested exclusively in Shari- ah-compliant financial institutions globally.
• Hemaya structured note program: one of the only Shariah-compliant 100 percent capitals protected notes giving you access to equity markets such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
I have read that Themar, a new Shariah- compliant product, is being managed by Qatar Islamic Bank, particularly by your department. What does this product offer and what other products have been intro- duced? Themar is a new and innovative product that provides the investment flexibility needed to meet customers’ demands. This innovative product allows customers to have a diversi- fied exposure by assets (Sukuk and equities) and by country, as the product is investing globally. Basically, it will allow clients to in- vest regularly or with several lump sums in the Sukuk market and in Islamic financial institutions’ stocks around the globe. This
38 Global Islamic Finance April 2012
plan is allowing customers to access securi- ties that might normally be out of reach or be too expensive to access. With this prod- uct we wanted to help clients to take the first step in building a diversified portfolio.
What do you believe is the most successful Islamic finance product? I think that Sukuk are the most successful Islamic finance product. Generally speaking, Sukuk have been increasingly popular with investors. I am not surprised that issuance of Islamic bonds have more than doubled in the first half of 2011.
2010 was a though year but 2011 should have a better positioning. Indeed, 2011 should mark a positive trend that should be confirmed in 2012 as a lot of refinancing will happen with quite a few Sukuk matur- ing. However, the Sukuk arena has not been isolated from default, with rating agencies downgrading and price compression. There- fore we believe that the best way to get expo- sure to the Sukuk market is to invest through funds managed by professionals.
Do you think Islamic finance could be as successful in a conventional dominated country as it is in a Muslim dominated country? The short answer will be yes, but we need to look at each component of the Islamic banking sector separately. Retail banking has a different dynamic to corporate finance or even asset management. My focus here will be on asset management; corporate
The asset man- agement sector is a long-term
business and that is one of the main reasons why it was neglected by the Islamic finance indus- try initially. Indeed, it takes time to gain inves- tors’ trust and build up a strong track record. Unfortunately, we can see a lot of new asset managers coming into the market with an insuf- ficient amount of seed capital and close after a year or two. Indeed, in 2010, more Shariah- compliant funds were closed than created
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