LONDON In the United Kingdom, Islamic finance is no longer mainly confined to London as the country’s main financial hub, but has expanded in recent years in small steps to the north, namely to Scotland. In recent times, this development even accelerated as Brexit has “cooled down” London‘s finance industry, in particular the housing financing and mortgage market, according to the Islamic Finance Council UK, a Glasgow-based a specialist body focusing on the promotion and support of the Islamic finance industry in the UK. Islamic banking and financial services reached Scotland in various steps. In 2005, the first Islamic mortgage under Scottish law was created, followed by other commercial real estate deals facilitated by local law firms mainly using musharaka structures along with murabahabased financing. The next big step followed in 2016, when the first Islamic bank, Birminghambased Al-Rayan Bank – formerly the Islamic Bank of Britain until it was acquired by Qatar’s Masraf Al Rayan in 2014 – opened a branch in Glasgow to tap into the potential of the country’s reputations as a hub for ethical finance and thus address both Muslims and Non-Muslims. The opening of Al Rayan’s Scottish branch followed a much-noticed 2015 inaugural conference in Edinburgh of the Global Ethical Finance Forum, an annual event purporting an agenda of a sustainable and inclusive financial industry and economy backed by the Scottish government.— Gulf Times
