Govt moves to support Islamic finance industry

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, order 2010, provides clarity on the regulatory treatment of corporate sukuk, helping to remove legal costs for the investments and removing obstacles to their issuance. Sukuk are a class of financial instruments which replicate the economic function of bonds, but within a framework that complies with Islamic principles, which prohibits the charging or paying of interest. In order to get around this, the issuer of a sukuk sells an investor group the certificate who rents it back to the issuer at a preordained rental fee, and makes a contract...