Malaysia is the world’s second largest Islamic banking hub after Bahrain but it may lose this status to Singapore if it does not start making overtures or giving perks to attract more players.
Industry analyst said the lack of new incentives and to a lesser extent aggressiveness could put Malaysia behind its neighbor from across the Causeway in the race for bigger share of the estimated US$300 billion Islamic finance market which is growing 15 percent annually.
“It is not really apt for Malaysia to declare itself an Islamic Financial hub without multiple local and foreign players. Bahrain, which is bigger than Malaysia, has nearly 30 banks and a large number of multilateral organizations,” said an analyst with a bank-backed securities firm.
“Singapore is already a sizeable conventional banking hub, with Islamic banking the only offering missing from its basket of services,” the analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Bernama recently. |
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