쿠웨이트 이슬람 금융의 현황과 전망

Present Situation and Prospect of Kuwait Islamic Financing

In less than a decade, the Islamic finance industry has evolved to become an essential part of the international financial system, growing tremendously not only in Muslim majority countries such as Malaysia, GCC, Brunei and Indonesia, but also spreading into new territories such as the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Hong Kong and Korea. Product range has also grown. The innovation was pushed by continuous discussion among industry players as well as an increased knowledge and awareness of Islamic finance principles. After the establishment of the banking legislation in 1976, Kuwait Finance House was set up in 1977, making it the first bank in the country. Nevertheless, the Kuwaiti government, in 2004, passed an amendment to the Central Bank Law(CBK Law) 32 of 1968 to open up the Islamic financial sector. CBK Law is that it explicitly defines Islamic banking business and provides for the Shariah principles which should be part of that business. Despite minor dissent, the Islamic banking legal framework in Kuwait adopts the contemporary requirements of the Islamic banking business required. As a result, the Kuwait Real Estate Bank converted to being an Islamic bank. A new Islamic financial institution, Boubyan Bank, was also awarded an Islamic banking licence. According to a recent survey, Kuwait comes in at fifth position of overall ranking by country in the field of Islamic financing industry. Its local Islamic financial sector mainly headed by Kuwait Finance House, Boubyan Bank and Kuwait International Bank. From a supervisory perspective, CBK has been involved with the regulation of Islamic finance since the early 1990s, and was responsible for establishing a legislative framework to set up regulatory and supervisory policies and procedures for Islamic finance. This has allowed the industry to thrive in the country.