The United States: An undiscovered market for Islamic finance?

Is the United States an undiscovered market for Islamic finance? That’s the question a group of industry professionals convened to answer on November 4 at the inaugural Islamic Finance Conference in Washington, DC. The event, whose program included sessions exploring everything from how to source Islamic capital in the United States to the relationship between socially responsible investing and Islam, was intended to serve as a meeting place to help interested parties come together and advance the cause of Islamic finance in the U.S. “It’s really about creating opportunities for everyone,” said Roy Michael, executive director of the Malaysia-US Chamber of Commerce. “The chamber recognizes the potential value of developing Islamic capital markets in the United States. Our goal is to play a constructive role and to facilitate growth.” Michael went on to say that the chamber wanted to make the event a “meeting of the minds,” bringing leaders from Malaysia, which has a highly developed Islamic economy, to interact with political and business leaders in the United States, which still lags East Asia, Gulf Cooperation Council nations, and even much of Europe in terms of Islamic financial products. Globally, Islamic finance is $2 trillion industry, including asset management and infrastructure