Islamic finance in Europe (69)

Continuation

A robust Islamic insurance industry:

-      helps to leverage risks at IIFSs;

-      creates market synergies;

-      and provides the base for accelerating the next phase of industry growth.

The Islamic insurance industry has developed remarkably over the last four years.

Indeed, the number of Islamic insurance companies grew by nearly 73% between 2008 and 2010 (i.e. from 113 to 195).

With these being based in more than 30 countries.

Their number is expected to increase further in the near future, as the industry’s growth gathers momentum.

It should be noted that, in the five years from 2006 to 2011, the Islamic insurance industry enjoyed a compound annual growth rate of 20%.

It was significantly higher than the growth of approximately 6-8% displayed by its conventional counterpart.

From the research paper of European Central Bank

(Authors: F.Mauro, P.Caristi, S.Couderc, A.D.Maria, L.Ho, B.K.Grewal, S.Masciantonio, S. Ongena and S.Zaher)