Editorial: Islamic Financial Institutions Financing the Terrorism? Regulators Role in Evidencing it a Fallacy

Abstract

Globally, there has been a remarkable growth of Islamic finance industry over the last four
decades since 1980. The total global market capitalisation of the Islamic financial services
industry that stood at a meagre US $10 billion in 1980 has almost surpassed the three-trillion
dollars mark. The assets of global Islamic banking sub-sector amounted to $1.99 trillion out
of the total Islamic finance assets of $2.88 trillion in 2019.
According to the Islamic Finance Development Report (2020) compiled jointly by the
Thomson Reuters’ ‘Refinitiv’ and ‘ICD’ of IDB Jeddah, global Islamic finance assets are
expected to reach $3.69 trillion by 2024. The Report indicated the top five countries driving
Islamic finance including Malaysia, Indonesia, Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and highlighted the recent trend in Islamic finance growth driving ahead to social finance in line with
the globally increasing focus for realizing the SDGs. The CEO of ICD, IDB resonated in the
Report that Islamic finance could play a major role in alleviating the social and economic
consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.