Bankers learn language of Koran to make Islam pay
Western investment banks are increasingly offering financial products fashioned to be acceptable to Muslims,
A decade ago terms like murabaha, sukuk and takaful* would have been lost on the vast majority of Western bankers.
But the Islamic financial industry's journey towards the mainstream has now reached a stage where a several of the big investment banks think they may miss out if they are unable to do the translation.
Citibank, UBS Warburg and HSBC have opened up Islamic banking arms in the Middle East while the German state of Saxony-Anhalt revealed an appetite for Islamic products outside the Muslim world by issuing a �100m sukuk or Islamic bond in August.
In their quest for financial instruments that follow the Koran's strict injunction on interest (riba) and guidelines on ethical investing and speculation (gharar), Islamic bankers and Sharia jurists are on a roll.
The geo-political and economic climate in the Middle East is underpinning growth and innovation as is demand from Muslims who want to conduct their financial affairs according to the strictures of their religion.
Record oil prices are contributing to record budget surpluses in oil-producing Gulf states, and while the bulk of accumulated personal wealth from the region about $1,500bn (�1,200bn) is still thought to be invested outside, bankers say new money is flowing out at a slower pace.
Post September 11 2001 some has also been flowing back from traditional destinations such as the US because of political sentiment or because today's booming Gulf markets provide more attractive returns.
The surge in liquidity in the Middle East is good news for Islamic bankers, who seem to be celebrating monthly a “first” of its kind or “largest yet” Islamically-structured transaction.
Ten days ago, advisers to Eric Meyer, the US-based fund manager, announced the launch of a new Islamic hedge fund. Its complex structure was approved by a panel of distinguished Sharia jurists, despite scepticism within the industry about the possibility of finding an Islamic alternative to “selling short”.
Last month Britain's first Sharia compliant bank opened in London.
While this and Islamic hedge funds are still embryonic, growth in the market for Islamic bonds since their infancy in 2000, points to potentially rapid recognition for other new instruments designed to provide higher rates of return than “interest-free” deposit accounts.
In the first eight months of this year bond issues from the Gulf (excluding sovereign debt) more than quadrupled to $4bn with sukuks a third of the total compared with only 14 per cent in 2003, according to Trowers and Hamlins, the City and international law firm.
Many of the issues have gone towards financing state-backed real estate and infrastructure development, while last week's record breaking $1.6bn Islamic financing deal will fund Etisalat, the Emirates telecommunications company's new GSM network in Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Abbas, who directs the Bahrain-based Liquidity Management Centre says there is no single explanation for the rapid rise of an industry, where principles were outlined in the Koran 1,400 years ago, but which for much of the past 30 has been confined to a handful of countries including Pakistan, Malaysia and Sudan.
Nor is there any one view of just how big the market is becoming. According to Ezzedine Khoja, secretary general of the Bahrain-based General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions there are now nearly 300 Islamic financial institutions globally with control of assets worth more than $300bn.
Since 1998 their asset base has grown, he says, by an average of around 25 per cent a year. More conservative estimates by Western credit rating agencies put this at closer to 10-15 per cent.
Mr Abbas says where there is an opportunity to invest closer to their home and heart, many Gulf Arabs will take it, and where there is a choice between Islamically structured products and conventional ones, many of the world's 1.2bn Muslims will pick the latter.
In other words, by delving back into the Koran or to the financial rules of Ottoman times, entrepreneurial Islamic bankers are developing ways to improve their share of a growing market. But there is still plenty of work to do. Lack of standardisation in the industry makes interpreting the Koran's guidelines on how to manage money “more of an art than a science”, says Mohamad Toufic Kanafani, chief executive of Noriba, the Islamic banking arm of UBS Warburg.
There is a Sharia board at every Islamic bank and one Sharia board's version of compliance with the Koran is not necessarily another's. While that remains the case, says Mr Kanafani, you can expect some occasional road-blocks.
* The sukuk is based on the sale of assets and their lease back. A murabaha is also an asset-backed loan. Takaful is Islamic insurance.
银行家开始学习可兰经
若是10年前，大多数西方银行家都弄不懂Murabaha、sukuk（回教债券）和takaful*（回教保险）等术语。
但是伊斯兰金融业正迈向主流，而该进程已到入这样一个阶段，使得目前一些大型投资银行认为，如果它们无法翻译这些术语，就有可能错失机会。
花旗银行（Citibank）、瑞银华宝（UBS Warburg）和汇丰银行（HSBC）已在中东开设了伊斯兰分行，而德国萨克森-安哈尔特州在8月份发行了1亿欧元回教债券，表现出穆斯林世界以外的人们对伊斯兰产品的浓厚兴趣。
伊斯兰银行家和伊斯兰教法学家们正春风得意，他们在寻求符合《可兰经》规定的金融工具。而《可兰经》中对利息（riba）有严格的规定；对合乎道德的投资和投机行为（gharar）也有指导方针。
目前中东的地缘政治和经济环境为中东的增长和创新提供了支持，加上穆斯林希望能遵照宗教规定来处理自己的金融事务，这方面的需求也同样高涨。
石油价格连创纪录，令海湾地区各石油生产国实现了创纪录的预算盈余。虽然人们认为，海湾地区积聚的个人财富中有很大一部分仍投资在外（大约有1.5兆美元，合1.2兆欧元），但银行家们表示，新资金外流的速度正在放缓。
自从2001年“9＃11”事件后，由于政治气氛，或是如今欣欣向荣的海湾市场会提供更诱人的回报，一些资金也从美国等传统投资目的地回流。
中东资金的流动性激增，这对伊斯兰银行家们来说是个好消息，他们似乎每月都在庆祝“第一种”或是“迄今为止最大”的伊斯兰式交易。
在10天之前，一位美国基金经理艾利克?迈耶（Eric Meyer）的顾问宣布推出一种新型伊斯兰对冲基金。由著名伊斯兰教法学家组成的委员会批准了这种基金的复杂结构，尽管对于能否找到一种代替“卖空”的伊斯兰做法，业界仍表示怀疑。
上个月，英国首家遵循伊斯兰教义的银行在伦敦开张。
虽然这家银行及伊斯兰对冲基金仍处于萌芽阶段，但伊斯兰债券市场自2000年建立以来已有所增长，这就表明，一些新型工具可能会很快得到市场认同。这些新工具旨在提供比“无息”存款账户更高的回报率。
根据伦敦金融城及国际律师事务所Trowers and Hamlins的统计，今年前8个月，海湾国家发行的债券（主权债券除外）翻了两番，达40亿美元，其中回教债券占三分之一，而2003年只占14%。
这些债券的发行，不少是为国家支持的房地产和基础设施开发进行融资，而上周一笔伊斯兰融资交易就突破了纪录，达到16亿美元，该交易将为阿联酋电信公司Etisalat在沙特阿拉伯的新GSM网络提供资金。
艾哈迈德?阿巴斯（Ahmed Abbas）掌管总部位于巴林的流动资金管理中心（Liquidity Management Centre）。他表示，对于伊斯兰金融业的急速崛起，没有单一的理由可以解释。这一行业的各项原则早在1400年前的《可兰经》里已有概述，而在过去30年的大部分时间里，该行业仅在巴基斯坦、马来西亚和苏丹等少数国家存在。
对于这个市场的规模将会变得多大也不一而论。总部在巴林的伊斯兰银行与金融机构总会（General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions）秘书长伊兹丁?霍贾（Ezzedine Khoja）表示，目前全球共有近300家伊斯兰金融机构，掌控的资产价值超过3000亿美元。
他表示，自1998年以来，它们的资产规模一直在以年均25%左右的速度递增。西方信用评级机构对此的估计则比较保守，称其年均增长率约为10%至15%。
阿巴斯先生说，如果有机会在靠近家乡或自己关心的项目上投资，那么许多海湾阿拉伯人都会抓住这个机会。而如果能在符合伊斯兰教义的金融产品与传统产品之间进行选择，全球12亿穆斯林中许多人都会选择前者。
换言之，通过回头深入研究《可兰经》或奥斯曼帝国时期的金融法规，具有创业精神的伊斯兰银行家正在开发新的途径，以在一个不断增长的市场中提高自己的份额。但还有大量工作要做。由于缺少行业标准，因此要解释《可兰经》中有关如何管理资金的指导方针，“与其说是一门学问，不如说是一门艺术，”瑞银华宝旗下伊斯兰分行Noriba的首席执行官穆罕默德?陶菲克?卡纳法尼(Mohamad Toufic Kanafani)说道。
在每家伊斯兰银行中，都有一个伊斯兰教法理事会，但一个伊斯兰教法理事会对如何遵守《可兰经》的理解，未必与另一个理事会相同。卡纳法尼先生说，在这种情况下，偶尔碰到一些障碍也就在所难免了。
*Sukuk（回教债券）以资产出售及其回租为基础。Murabaha也是一种以资产为担保的贷款。Takaful（回教保险）则是一种伊斯兰保险。
