Winner: BNP Paribas Najmah

Winner: HSBC Amanah

Winner: Jadwa’s acquisition of 30% stake in Luberef ExxonMobil sold its 30% stake in Lubricating Oil Refining Company (Luberef), a joint venture with Saudi Aramco at the very end of 2007. The buyers were a consortium composed of affiliates of the Zamil Group, the Al Subeaei Group and Jadwa Proprietary Investments. Jadwa Investment advised the consortium.

Appointed in January to chair the recently established Task Force for Islamic Finance & Global Financial Stability, Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz is one of Islamic finance’s most prominent advocates.

A year ago Gulf economies were touted as being so uncorrelated with those of the rest of the world that they had little to fear from the credit crunch. Now even Dubai – which for so long seemed to operate under different economic forces from the rest of the planet – is facing a property crash.

The annual Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey provides a qualitative and quantitative review of the best services in private banking, by region and by areas of service. It is an informative guide for high net-worth individuals on the range of service providers that are available.

Size will matter in Islamic banking

Data from the Islamic Finance Information Service indicate that rapid growth of Shariah-compliant banking comes mostly from a low base. Is the sector set for a wave of consolidation as organic growth slows? Chris Wright reports.

Size will matter in Islamic banking

Islamic finance debate: Prospects and problems of Shariah-compliant finance

The market is growing fast in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities. Its fuller development, Euromoney’s roundtable of experts suggests, depends on clearer views on objectives, further development of regulation and standardization of products and approaches.

Size will matter in Islamic banking

"If you track our market performance since the election in early March... there is probably less volatility" -Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Bursa Malaysia

Libya has Africa’s largest oil reserves but last year it was only the continent’s third-biggest producer. So the decision of Bahraini Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House to invest $400 million of initial equity into an energy infrastructure project there is understandable. This is especially so given that the bank says it will not be surprised if the Libyan government’s Economic and Social Fund, which is advising on the project, makes a similar sized equity injection. Libya’s National Oil Company is seeking to increase oil production by 1 million barrels a day in the next four years, while doubling the country’s gas capacity.

Mid-caps starved of operational and growth capital have new lenders.

The European Commission could seriously damage structured finance, say speakers.

Meet Mr Pakistan

The recent turbulence at the heart of Pakistan’s political machine raised significant but nuanced questions for Mian Mansha. The two individuals publicly responsible for ousting Pervez Musharraf as president – former premier Nawaz Sharif, and Asif Ali Zardari, the current president and widower of the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto – are also prominent members of the country’s rich list. Zardari, second in the rankings, is worth an estimated $1.8 billion, while Sharif, ousted as premier in 1999 by Musharraf, is worth $1.4 billion (but possibly as much as five times that tally), largely thanks to his shareholding in the Lahore-based Ittefaq Group, founded by Sharif’s father, Muhammad.

The growth in Islamic finance has slowed with the deepening credit crunch but the Saudi Binladin Group has raised the first sukuk for the world’s most holy boom town: Mecca.

Dubai Islamic Bank has appointed a new chief executive. Abdulla Al Hamli moves to the position from his role as chief of operations and information technology at the bank. Al Hamli has worked at DIB for nine years. For more than 10 years before that, he was director of information systems at the Dubai Ports Authority and Jebel Ali Free Zone.The previous chief executive, Saad Abdul Razak, left in late 2007 to join the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

The recent turbulence at the heart of Pakistan’s political machine raised significant but nuanced questions for Mian Mansha. The two individuals publicly responsible for ousting Pervez Musharraf as president – former premier Nawaz Sharif, and Asif Ali Zardari, the current president and widower of the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto – are also prominent members of the country’s rich list. Zardari, second in the rankings, is worth an estimated $1.8 billion, while Sharif, ousted as premier in 1999 by Musharraf, is worth $1.4 billion (but possibly as much as five times that tally), largely thanks to his shareholding in the Lahore-based Ittefaq Group, founded by Sharif’s father, Muhammad.

Mian Mansha owns one of the best banks in Asia but his ambitions reach much further. His empire incorporates insurance, cement, textiles, infrastructure and power generation. In his first-ever interview with the foreign media, he tells Elliot Wilson of his plans to list his holding company on the London Stock Exchange within the next two years, and expand across Asia into the Middle East, emerging Europe and beyond.

Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank’s real estate interests are not confined to the Gulf region. It is a growing powerhouse in property investment in Europe and an established force in Islamic mortgages in the UK. Elliot Wilson reports.

The world's leading Central bank governors and Ministers of finance in Euromoney

One would expect the banking sector to be a shambles in Palestine but it is in a period of dynamic growth. According to the Palestine Monetary Authority, the central bank, the sector grew by 22% in 2007; total assets are $7 billion, client deposits $5 billion, compared with $150 million at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993, according to the Bank of Palestine.

India: The State they’re in

Does Syria’s long-awaited equity market finally mean business? Alex Warren reports.

Rising food prices, in a country where people spend half their income on food already, are a crucial issue for finance minister Mirz Azizul Islam.

One of the puzzles of Islamic finance is how Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has been so utterly left behind in its development. Nearby Malaysia has evolved the most sophisticated regulatory environment for Islamic finance anywhere in the world and, after building an admirable domestic base, has now opened its doors to foreign entrants. Several Gulf states, notably Bahrain, have built centres of excellence around Shariah-compliant finance; and even less-developed nations such as Pakistan are making up for a slow start and witnessing a boom in this growing area.

The Middle East's most successful banks remain on a determined course for growth, both regionally and in terms of the products they offer. Will the boom in financial markets and services continue, despite political uncertainty and the contagion of the credit crunch?