Zawya Islamic serves the growing need for better access to Islamic finance investments and markets

According to Russell Haworth, managing director, Middle East and North Africa, "Islamic finance is one of the fastest-growing branches of the financial services industry globally. Yet, the industry suffers from high information search cost and asymmetry, transaction inefficiencies, and lack of standardization, among others. Zawya Islamic addresses the needs for any investor -- Islamic or otherwise -- to access the required information to conduct their work in a time-efficient way, in one place, and in line with Shari'ah laws, standards and regulations."

Launched at the recent Global Islamic Economy Summit, Zawya Islamic is powered by data from Thomson Reuters in collaboration with global Shari'ah and Islamic finance market players, standard setters and authorities. It makes Shari'ah-compliant investment, decision making and networking with the Islamic markets easier, amalgamating:

  • Fatawa, standards, regulations, legal documentation and product guidance notes, intelligently connected with scholars and instruments.

  • Deep fundamental data on global Sukuk, Islamic funds, Islamic banks, financial institutions and Shari'ah-compliant equities.

  • Islamic finance news, research, indices, money market and benchmark rates.

  • The ICD Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Development Indicator and the Islamic Finance Gateway Community.

Whether you're a fund manager, investment banker, strategy consultant or Shari'ah adviser, Zawya Islamic integrates all the necessary workflow requirements of the Shari'ah-compliant transaction due diligence approach. From understanding the broader macro-economic environment, comparing the performance of various Shari'ah-compliant asset classes and instruments, conducting the required Shari'ah compliance verification and then drafting the necessary contracts, Zawya Islamic facilitates the accessibility of this burgeoning industry to anyone anywhere.

Critically, it also links the global Islamic finance community by allowing users to connect with counterparties. Now finance professionals from Tokyo to Sao Paulo, Dubai to Kuala Lumpur are connected, with access to insight and information on the world of Islamic finance through Zawya Islamic.

Global Islamic Economy Summit

In late November 2013, in collaboration with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, we organized and hosted the two-day Global Islamic Economy Summit, which connected the world's leading Islamic economy thinkers, policy makers and stakeholders. The summit addressed the six pillars of an Islamic economy: halal travel, halal food, halal lifestyle, Islamic finance, small to medium-size enterprise development and Islamic economy infrastructure, through panel style discussions and presentations. More than 3,000 delegates attended the event.

© Reuters 2014