Sunday 20 / July / 2025
Muscat: In cooperation with the Islamic Finance News, the Capital Market Authority on Tuesday organised at Grand Millennium Hotel the Islamic Finance Forum.
]The forum highlighted the developments of the Islamic financial services market, including the takaful insurance services and the role it may play to ensure economic diversification.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Salmi, CEO of CMA said that the value of the Sharia compatible products at the Sultanate as of the end of June 2016 stood at about OMR3.91 billion (about $10.16 billion) including the value of the sharia compatible shares, the investment funds an sukuk.
While addressing the gathering at the opening ceremony, the CEO of CMA said that the sharia compatible capital market represents 22.64 per cent of the total capital market in the Sultanate in 2016, compared to 21.14 per cent or OMR3.24 (about $8.42 billion) in 2015.
He pointed out that this value does not include the $0.5 billion worth sovereign sukuk issued by the Sultanate's government last July or the two issues initially approved by CMA (RO 300 million).
On his part, Hamoud bin Sanjour Al Zadjali, CEO of the Central Bank of Oman said that the Islamic banks managed to capture more than 10 per cent of the banking activity in terms of assets, deposits and loans.
He pointed out that getting 10 per cent of the market share is a remarkable achievement considering the fact that it was made in a short span of time; only four years since the launch of Islamic banking in the Sultanate.
It is also an achievement if we compared it with countries that have started the experience long time back and have not yet reached this 10 per cent.
He added in a press statement that the CBO has provided great subsidy to Islamic banks since their launch.
It also alleviated the statutory requirements.
He also affirmed that the Omani Riyal's condition is good as the foreign reserves with CBO cover three times the value of the traded currency.
The Forum included a number of sessions that covered important themes, such as the contribution of Islamic banking to the success of Tanfeedh programmes and the role of regulatory bodies in regularising the financial market services.
It should be noted that the second version of the IFN Forum Oman, which is bigger than the previous version, comes in a bid to enhance awareness about Islamic finance in the Sultanate and the constant growth made by this sector.
It also highlighted the major challenges facing the sector and how to address them.
The closed roundtable meeting between the regulatory bodies and local and foreign players will discuss the key steps needed to ensure more development of the Islamic fiance in the Sultanate.
A workshop was also held on Islamic fiance for the university students to give them an idea about Islamic finance, the capital market and Takaful insurance.
