Bahrain, UAE and Saudi ranked among world’s top five Islamic finance economies

Bahrain, UAE and Saudi ranked among world’s top five Islamic finance economies

Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are ranked among the world's top five Islamic finance economies in 2020 by the Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI).

Bahrain, which has led MENA in all eight IFDIs to date, ranked in third place globally this year, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia ranking fourth and fifth respectively. A total of 135 countries are ranked as part of the index.

The report cited Bahrain's robust and supportive regulation for Islamic finance and banking as well as increases in the number of Islamic banking assets as key to the high ranking.

The survey recognised UAE's efforts in the governance space, highlighting the banking, takaful and sukuk regulations that were introduced in 2019, as well as the unified global legal framework for Islamic finance launched in May 2020. The UAE was also recognised as the top Islamic Finance educator in the region boasting the highest number of Islamic Finance Education Providers across the GCC at 52 - including 12 that provide degrees.

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The IFDI is part of the annual Islamic Finance Development Report produced by Refinitiv and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the