At semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Istanbul last month, talk was largely dominated, inevitably, by the economic crisis and its aftermath. But suitably enough, given the location, another topic also came to the fore: the role of Islamic finance, a fast-developing sector of the global banking industry that has remained remarkably resilient through the slowdown.
With the value of assets in Islamic banks now close to $1 trillion and the industry growing at an estimated annual rate of 15 to 20 percent, business students are increasingly eager to cash in. Universities are increasingly offering new postgraduate programs in Islamic finance to help them do it.
Islamic financial products comply with Koranic prohibitions against charging interest and investing in morally dubious industries, such as alcohol and pornography, and lending is based on profit-sharing. At a time when Western banking and financial models have been thoroughly discredited, Islamic finance is enjoying an enviable reputation as a more reliable way to invest. HSBC in the United Kingdom is one of many Western institutions that now offer, among other products, Shariah-compliant mortgages and bank accounts.
“There is a substantial shortage of people familiar with Islamic financial principals in Western banks,” said Philip Molyneux, head of the business school at Bangor University in Wales, which introduced M.A. and M.S. programs in Islamic banking and finance last year. “And they’re all realizing that the Muslim population is a client base that it would be in their interest to cater to.”
The British government has said it is committed to turning London into a robust Islamic financial center and a paper published by the Treasury in December called for the pool of people with the necessary training to be expanded “to keep up with the rapid growth of the market.” British business schools have moved fast to meet the challenge.
Bangor University introduced its one-year degree courses in Islamic finance after receiving a flood of inquiry from prospective students. Participants finish the programs by submitting a dissertation on a topic related to Islamic banking — for instance the market in Islamic bonds, known as sukuk. Enrollment has risen for this academic year to 29 students from just over half that number last year. Ten of this year’s students are employees of the Faisal Islamic Bank in Sudan, sent to Bangor to gain academic accreditation and improve their English.
According to Mr. Molyneux, about a third of this year’s M.A and M.S. classes has a background in Koranic study and is interested in becoming Shariah scholars. “Every bank, insurance company and investment firm that offers Islamic products has to have a Shariah board that screens their business and decides whether it’s compliant with Islamic principles or not,” he said. “Finding people who can interpret the religious tracts and understand the financial technicalities isn’t easy.”
Next academic year, responding to high demand, the school intends to introduce an M.B.A. in Islamic finance. “I suspect that there will be quite a bit of migration from the M.A. and M.S. to the more management-oriented M.B.A.,” Mr. Molyneux said. “The commercial sector is much more attracted to the M.B.A. than it is to the other degrees, which it often views — rightly or wrongly — as being too academic.”
Thom Polson, a 28-year-old Seattle native, enrolled in the M.A. program at Bangor after completing a postgraduate degree at the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance in London. His interest in the sector began when, traveling extensively through the Middle East, he could see that “Islamic banking was growing almost as fast as the skyscrapers.”
“I saw for the first time economic success working hand in hand with law and religion,” Mr. Polson said. “And it fit with the way I think about community.” Upon graduation, he plans to move to Switzerland and work in Islamic wealth management. His aim is to contribute to the conversion of “the huge amount of capital that is already there from the Muslim world to Shariah-compliant accounts,” he said.
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