The Scotland-based Islamic Finance Council has welcomed the Treasury's commitment to an Islamic bond issue next year and renewed its call for the Scottish Government to follow suit.
David Cameron announced at the World Islamic Economic Forum in London that the UK would become the first non-Muslim country to issue sukuk, or Islamic bonds, in a £200 million issue next year.
The IFC has for the past three years been promoting sukuk as a way of financing big infrastructure projects including the new Forth crossing.
Graham Burnside, head of banking and finance at Tods Murray Solicitors and an executive board member of the IFC, welcomed the Prime Minister's move, adding: "Across the globe, sukuk issuance has grown exponentially over the last few years and this gives the UK a lead in capturing what is now a very substantial investment market. There is a real and significant demand for such bonds from the Muslim world and beyond, which can bring investment on a major scale into the UK."
The Treasury's sukuk will be structured to bring in a fixed return without charging interest, in accordance with Islamic financial principles.
Mr Burnside said: "One interesting question is whether the Scottish Government might take up the concept, given the potential solution such funding could offer."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article