Why do not become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a
Global Financial Hub for Islamic Finance

Dr. Fadul AbdulKarim Al-Bashir
 Islamic Economics Institute
 King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, KSA

Wednesday 15 January, 2014 (14-03-1435H)

Abstract

The concept of competition generated a new dimension in the Islamic financial services industry that boosted its growth and development. This brought forth a tenacious rivalry between many capitals to be a center of the industry such as London, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai ,and Manama. However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remained outside this competition in spite of its tremendous wealth, leadership in Islamic finance and its significant contribution to the industry, alongside with the strength of the global economy. This paper addresses the importance of global financial centers and their impact on the economies of the hosting countries , and sheds some light on the size of Islamic finance in countries competing for the leadership through the presentation ,discussion and analysis of the components of the industry in terms of asset size academic and professional institutions and the active support of the Islamic financial services industry besides Takaful insurance and investment funds in these countries. The paper discusses and analyzes the strengths that make Saudi Arabia a global financial hub for Islamic finance and weaknesses that reduce its leadership in this respect .Furthermore, the paper discusses the opportunities and challenges encountered by using the SWOT analysis. The goal of this paper to provide the recommendations and the results that can contribute to the development of a vision to help in the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the industry Islamic finance by answering the following questions: Why does the Kingdom is unable to a global financial hub of Islamic finance? What are the opportunities that can be exploited to achieve this goal? What are the risks that prevent its leadership? How can it contribute to Islamic financial institutions operating in the Saudi market to achieve this goal?
 
Keywords: Saudi Arabia, the capitals ofIslamic finance, financial centers, competitive ofIslamic finance.