The Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) and the London Metal Exchange (LME) have entered into a cooperation agreement that will assist the BMA to develop contracts and documents that could be used by Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) for conducting transactions in the metals also traded on the LME.
The agreement comes as a result of a common recognition by the BMA and LME of the potential demand for products that conform to Islamic Shari'a principles. Standardization of such contracts and documents would facilitate trading by IFIs, which manage assets in excess of $230 billion, of which approximately 80 percent are invested in commodities.
Islamic banking and finance has, in a relatively short time, emerged as an important force in the international banking arena, with over 250 Islamic financial institutions operating in more than 50 countries. The industry's current annual growth rate of 15 percent is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
