The Maldives is among the top 15 developed nations in the Islamic finance industry, according to the ICD–Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI) 2016 and Islamic Finance Development Report 2016.
The most developed performers include countries from the GCC, South and Southeast Asia. The Maldives also comes second to Pakistan in terms of overall Islamic finance development in South Asia region.
According to the report, the Islamic finance industry grew 7% to US$ 2 trillion in 2015. However, the impact of global events like the sharp drop in oil prices lowered the financial performance and profitability measures for some countries in regions such as the GCC. With the continued positive growth of Islamic finance assets globally and acceptance of Islamic finance in new countries, the IFDI projects that Islamic finance assets will grow to US$ 3.5 trillion by 2021.
The Maldives posted the greatest assets growth in South Asia region between 2012 and 2015, the report said, with the introduction of Islamic banking products by conventional banks in the country gave a boost to the country’s total assets. It is also the fastest country globally in terms of other Islamic financial institutions assets growth between 2012 and 2015, and up to December 2015, the Maldives has posted US$ 144.14 million in Islamic finance assets, the report said.
The Islamic Finance Development Report and Indicator 2016 is jointly produced by Thomson Reuters, the world's leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector development arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). It is an annual barometer that represents the overall development of the Islamic finance industry worldwide. It measures five key components that combine to depict the bigger picture of the state of Islamic finance which are Quantitative Development (QD), Knowledge, Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Awareness.