The growth of Islamic Banking is seen as an important trend and not just a fashion. Islamic banking is already a sizable and substantial market, estimated between US$500 billion and US$1 trillion of assets.

Calyon has been involved in Islamic banking since the mid eighties, mostly in simple deposit taking. Since 2000, demand for a much wider range of products has been seen.

Calyon already has a strong geographic presence in those areas in which Islamic banking is predominant, such as the Gulf and South East Asia. Calyon is also a major player in many of the businesses where Islamic banking is developing as structured finance and capital markets. These are the reasons why it was natural for Calyon to add the capacity offer Islamic products to their clients.
 

Calyon can’t offer Islamic solutions if it is not a major player in the underlying conventional business. The strengths of Calyon in Islamic financing are therefore the same as our conventional strengths.  In addition the Calyon Islamic advantage includes:

• a dedicated team with more than 30 years of experience in working on ShariaIslamic law as revealed in the Quran and through the example of Prophet Muhammad.
  A Sharia compliant product meets the requirements of Islamic law.
  Sharia Board is the committee of Islamic scholars available to an Islamic financial institution for guidance and supervision in the development of Sharia compliant products.h compliant products,
• the strong history and client relationships already built,
• the capacity to listen to the client’s needs and to innovate to find new solutions for their investment and hedging needs.
   

Calyon knows the regions in which Islamic banking is growing; it is taking the time to not only understand the rules of Shariah but to propose products and solutions which follow the spirit of Shariah.

In addition of the expertise of the Islamic banking team, Calyon have the expertise of the underline businesses like structured finance, loan syndication, Debt & Credit Markets and Fixed Income Markets. The Global Islamic team is a transversal business line. It’s a specialised team which enables every business line of the bank to offer Islamic solutions. It has been constructed with experts from each business like structured finance, capital markets, equity… Their background enables them to work with all business lines of the bank.

Finally, in Calyon, you will have access to the experience within the team and the faculty to listen to you and propose tailored solutions.
 

The growth of Islamic Banking has been 20% a year for the last five years. The market will continue to grow strongly. Indeed, we are seeing a trend of clients who used to do conventional banking business now want to do Islamic finance only.

We also expect growth in the expertise of Islamic banking, as well as the range of products available. Because today the available range of Shariah compliant products is smaller than the conventional one. Islamic Finance is going to be a key bridge not just for Islamic clients but also for conventional clients who want access to Islamic investors to finance conventional companies and projects in the west. Islamic products can be used by everybody but conventional products can’t be used by Islamic clients.

Islamic banking will be seeing more and more as a global product and not only a Middle East product. The business will be developed in other Muslim countries such as Indonesia, and also in Western financial centres such as London, Paris etc, both to appeal to Muslims living in those countries, but also as hubs of Islamic finance expertise.