Islamic Finance in Sri Lanka, sukuk and sukuk trading

Riyazi Farook, a Master’s student at Middlesex University London, writes in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times (based on an article originally published in Islamic Finance News about the Islamic banking industry in the country. Although only 7 percent of the population is Muslim, the country’s banking laws specifically deal with Islamic banks and a number operate in the country.

Kuwait Finance House, an Islamic finance provider in Kuwait and Malaysia, announced that it will create a subsidiary to trade sukuk. The limited liquidity of sukuk may provide one of the greatest challenges to the growth of sukuk. Only some sukuk can be traded at values different from par.

Sukuk issuance in 2007 totaled $30.8 billion, according to Bloomberg.