Qatar is looking to bolster its ambitions to be Mena’s leading Islamic finance centre after announcing plans to create a centralised Sharia board and introduce new regulations for the sector.
The board will be set up by the Qatar Central Bank and will be charged with establishing consistent rules on sharia products for Qatar’s Islamic finance sector.
The current decentralised governance structure has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest with several Islamic scholars acting as Sharia advisors to multiple and competing financial institutions.
A report written by Qatar Financial Centre, the Qatar Islamic Finance Hub report, welcomes the initiative as one that will “raise consistency” and “improve the integrity of the industry”.
The QCB is also looking to bring in strengthened regulations for Islamic products such as increasingly popular Chinese renminbi-denominated sukuk.
Qatar’s Islamic finance sector has been growing rapidly in recent years, at a compounded annual growth rate of 8% since 2015, and its $129 billion now makes up a third (33%) of Qatar’s total financial assets.
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