Islamic finance sector in Qatar has witnessed an unprecedented progress in the past few years. Qatar recently hosted the 6th Doha Islamic Finance Conference under the title “Islamic Finance in a Transforming World”.
Hosting this international conference established the position of Qatar on the map of Islamic finance globally. Qatar plays a major role in developing the sukuk industry (Islamic bonds) globally.
Qatari companies operating in accordance with the provisions of Islamic Sharia, are expanding in most of the world’s markets. Qatar has a legislative framework, an operational environment and a distinct organizational structure in the Islamic finance sector. Qatar is the fifth largest Islamic finance market with banking assets amounting to $120bn, at a growth rate of more than 10 percent in 2018. Recently the Islamic Financial Development Index category issued by Thomson Reuters and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector ranked Qatar’s Islamic finance sector at 46.31 percent compared to the global average of 10.45 percent.
The Qatari Islamic finance sector was included in the report of the World Economic Forum as one of the strongest sectors of Islamic finance besides Malaysia, Kuwait, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan.
According to the recently released annual Islamic Finance Report issued by the Qatar Financial Centre, Qatar’s Islamic finance assets grew at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent since 2015 to $129bn in the first half of 2019, constituting 33 percent of Qatar’s total financial system assets. Islamic banks in Qatar are actively continuing their work to take advantage of technology to develop and expand their activities and enhance their capabilities to compete in global financial markets and improve their mechanisms for cross-border transactions, in addition to developing money market products and sukuk and support in financing infrastructure projects. Experts believe that the Islamic banks and Islamic finance institutions should be prepared to face the upcoming and renewing challenges of technology, such as Artificial Intelligence.
The Islamic financial industry is achieving rapid growth as the number of Islamic financial institutions has reached 1,389 institutions operating worldwide with total assets of $2.4 trillion. These institutions have achieved a compound annual growth rate of 6 percent while Islamic banking services hold a share of 71 percent or the equivalent of $1.7 trillion of the total volume of Islamic financial industry assets. The proactive government policies and buoyant financial sector proves that Qatar is poised to be one of the world’s leading Islamic finance hubs.