As the leading arranger of global sukuk, HSBC Amanah has taken some of the largest sovereign and corporate issuers to the market. In 2010, it was responsible not only for the largest sukuk deal of the year but also the largest Shariah-compliant REIT and the first project finance sukuk by a foreign borrower in Malaysia. In this interview, CEO of HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad and Global CEO, HSBC Amanah, Mukhtar Hussain talks about up-and-coming asset classes in Islamic finance and why Malaysia is a key market for HSBC.

How would you describe the development of Islamic finance over the last few years? Where is it now, and what do you think of its growth potential for the coming years?

Even though the principles espoused by Islamic finance are more than 1,400 years old, the industry itself is still relatively young. Since the first commercial Islamic banks were founded in the mid-70s to capture Arab petrodollar wealth, some 300 Shariah-compliant financial institutions have been set up across 75 countries that together have attracted an estimated USD1 trillion in assets. Read More...