Leaders’ Question Time: New Challenges — Islamic Finance’s Response (Session One)

We pose a series of high-level strategic questions to senior representatives of the UK Islamic financial services industry. What is Islamic finance’s response to a rapidly shifting macroeconomic environment, and will inflation lead to innovative Islamic financial solutions? What form and scale might this innovation take? How can UK Islamic finance and investment create a genuinely competitive advantage in key areas such as retail, commercial, corporate banking and wealth management? How are UK Islamic retail banks innovating customer acquisition and retention strategies, and how successful have these been? Are there inhibitions and limitations the Islamic financial services industry needs to acknowledge and overcome? Does Islamic finance want to become mainstream, or are we content with the alternative label? What’s working in financial technology, and who ultimately benefits: financial institutions, consumers or both? Is technology being fully utilized to address key customer concerns surrounding authenticity and the minimization of uncertainty? Having witnessed the growth of ESG and sustainable finance, on reflection, are there things Islamic finance could have done differently?Moderator:Stella Cox, Managing Director, DDCAPPanelists:Michael Rainey, Partner, King & SpaldingDr Mohamed Damak, Senior Director, Global Head of Islamic Finance, S&P Global RatingsMohammed Paracha, Head of Middle East, Norton Rose FulbrightRichard Thomas, Managing Director, Sustainable EconomyDr Usman Chaudry, Chief Risk Officer and Executive Director of the Board, Gatehouse Bank