yunfei

19.6.07

		Islamic Finance Perspectives & Opportunities
		my first gananan forum has left me more confused than ever, on whether it is a wise decision to foray into the world of islamic finance as a single focuspoint. the speaker, mr raj, made certain very contradictory points (which in retrospect, do not clash as much as i thought, but are ideas with very fragile foundations). he mentioned that we, as non-muslim singaporeans, stand a very good chance at "minting money" from this industry because of our location, in a region that is of proximity to the religion of islam and with malaysia screwing up their chances with the middle-eastern investors with their lack of financial infrastructure. then he goes on to admit that the yield from islamic financial instruments does not measure up to conventional instruments. (hmmm) BUT he goes on to mention that research has shown that the "return (from islamic financial instruments) is equivalent to LIBOR plus, not benchmarked against, but equivalent". (double hmmm) he made a good point about moulding islamic banking into something "more palatable to suit conventional asian professionals" though, by changing the terms into conventional equivalents such as 'savings deposit', 'mortgage financing', etc. however, do we start naming them socially responsible (insert instrument name) or continue marketing under the name of islamic finance? there was another point of interest in the dialogue, where he mentioned that hedge funds were actually shariah-compliant, if we were familiar with the hedge funds market. sigh. i obviously don't know a shit about hedge funds. the forum wasn't as inspiring as i imagined it would be, but a worthy platform for a conversation of ideas. i actually had fun chatting with strangers after the session. after all, we don't have to outperform one another to gain participation points. i think i'll be back for more :) (pardon me if i sound very n00b. i'm no finance expert :P) Labels: finance

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