This month I want to change tack a little. On the travel front it has been relatively quiet, so I have had the opportunity to have some quality time in Kuala Lumpur and have taken the opportunity to get in touch with quite a few of my network who are either resident in Malaysia or passing through. Topics for discussion have been wide-ranging, but here is a selection of a few that have been given a going over.

Firstly, I want to share some thoughts on the growth potential for Islamic finance. For years, it appears, we have been talking about 15% YOY growth; however, I am never too sure on what basis these numbers are calculated. Is it not time to get some reasonable level of confirmation about the scale and constituents of our market so that we can draw reasonable conclusions regarding key areas of growth? From my perspective, there are five main areas of growth that will contribute to the baseline:

the development of the Islamic treasury and capital markets
Takaful
alignment of Islamic finance to the halal industry
the growth of the Muslim population (some estimates indicate that more than half the global population will be Muslim by 2050)
continuing development of Islamic finance in non-Muslim countries.

What might be interesting is to develop some business leading indicators based on these areas, and others (as I do not lay claim to having them all included!).

This would allow us as an industry to be more forward looking with some certainty, rather than churning out the same statistics based on historic data. As you can see I come from the “you cannot manage what you cannot measure” school of thought.

The second area I want to cover is that of the movement from Shariah compliance to Shariah based. Here, I think we need to have a clearer and more widely accepted definition of each term so that the majority of us can start from the same page. Having said that, I do believe that the move in the Shariah based direction is still going to be a long and arduous journey that will require not only the commitment of the scholars and industry, but also the ability of the consumer to grasp what is going on and, thereby, accept the changes as viable and delivering value.

The third area is the alignment of the halal industry with Islamic finance. Again, this is a topic that has been discussed for a long period of time. However, I have yet to be convinced that a transformation to the next level is getting any closer.

I am aware that in Brazil, which is the largest supplier of halal meat to the world, there is considerable discussion within that industry with regard to making the entire process halal.

This would include financing and raising capital in a Shariah compliant way; the objective being to keep Brazil in its premier position. Food for thought!

I know that the debate has started on all of these issues and that there are already a number of plans in motion. As usual, there is much to do and not a moment to lose.