Almost three decades have passed since the founding of the first modern Islamic bank in the small Egyptian delta town of Mit Ghamr. Islamic banking has developed so remarkably in the last quarter century, that it is hard to believe that the movement is so young.The main expansion occurred in the...

Islamic finance has become increasingly significant in financial centres in the West, notably London, despite the regulatory hurdles presented by operating in a nonMuslim financial environment. The growth of Islamic finance partly reflects demand from Muslim resident and non-resident clients for...

The article by Hamid Zangeneh and Ahmad Salam is a welcome departure in the Islamic finance literature, as relatively little has been written about the role of central banks in an Islamic financial system. The authors review the major functions of central banks, and then discuss how monetary...