Iqbal Khan, the founding CEO of HSBC Amanah, is one of the most powerful and successful financiers in the Gulf region. He is also a board member of HSBC Bank Middle East, HSBC Investment Bank in Saudi Arabia and Saudi British Bank.

Leading international management consultancies have traditionally topped this category, with past winners including Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. This year, although KPMG was an impressive challenger, Euromoney recognizes the work of local specialist Dar Al Istithmar.

The sukuk market has bucked the general trend of lack of supply in Islamic finance.

The contest between DIB and CIMB Islamic for best sukuk house could not have been tighter. However, the standout deal over the past 12 months was DIB’s role as co-lead manager of a $600 million issue for the government of Malaysia. CIMB has failed to make significant strides in the Gulf, while DIB was able to snatch business from CIMB’s own backyard. Aref Kooheji, DIB’s executive vice-president of investment and corporate banking, says that DIB expects to do more deals in Malaysia and Asia more broadly in the future. Having lead managed the world’s only $1 billion sukuk al ijara, critics argued that DIB and other Islamic banks should be getting involved in more innovative sukuk deals rather than run-of-the-mill transactions. DIB responded to its critics with a string of landmark Islamic bond issuances between December 2004 and November 2005.

CIMB Islamic’s Islamic profit rate swap (IPRS), a shariah-compliant version of an interest rate swap, opens up a new field in Islamic finance. According to Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, the bank’s head, the IPRS was launched in December 2005 under the purview of Malaysia’s central bank.

Arcapita has been named best Islamic private equity house in recognition of its leading position in the world of international shariah-compliant private equity. The firm was created in 1997 and currently employs more than 140 people in its offices in Bahrain, Atlanta and London.

Euromoney reports on the innovations driving the market forward, and profiles the winners of latest Islamic finance awards.

There is little to choose between the two Malaysian Islamic banking leaders, CIMB Islamic and AmMerchant, but CIMB comes out on top for the second year running because of the breadth and volume of its Islamic finance activities. CIMB Islamic is a bank within a bank and is responsible for CIMB Group’s Islamic finance business onshore and off. CIMB Islamic’s focus is on Islamic debt and equity capital markets, private equity, private banking, asset and fund management, and corporate finance. The bank’s head, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, says the key to its success is the quality of its staff.

Bahrain-based Noriba snatched this year’s award, narrowly beating the 2005 winner, Gulf Financial House. Noriba, which was incorporated in 2002, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switzerland’s UBS Group. According to CEO Toufic Kanafani, the bank’s investor base is international, with clients from the Gulf region, the wider Middle East, the US, Europe and South East Asia.

In a year characterized by innovation in Islamic finance, Deutsche Bank stands out. A new structure based on the wa’s contract has allowed the bank to introduce novel shariah-compliant asset classes and pay-offs and to make possible most derivatives, such as interest rate swaps, currency swaps and options.

Noriba exits some investments early after strong performance.

Middle Eastern private investment and advisory firm Injazat Capital is launching a $100 million Islamic-compliant healthcare fund this month.

The Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) has set itself an ambitious target, according to its chairman.

Saudi and Qatari banks launch new investment products. National Commercial Bank has become only the second Saudi Arabian financial services provider to launch a Shariah-compliant mutual fund that will invest in the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The UAE's financial regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority, announced on September 6 that the case of two individuals and a brokerage suspected of manipulating the stock price of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) had been referred to the judiciary.

As tensions mount between Iran and the west over the Islamic state's nuclear ambitions, Tehran seems to be adopting an Ostpolitik, looking to China and India for political and energy ties. Opec's second-largest oil producer, which also has the world's second-biggest gas reserves, is wooing Asia's fast-growing and energy-hungry economies.

Sabic's upcoming $267 million Shariah-compliant domestic bond should set the pattern for issuance in a Saudi market that has seen little corporate paper up to now.

From quiet beginnings as one of the world's smallest states, Qatar has emerged as a regional player as a result of shrewd investment in natural gas and sound economic management. Although oil and gas revenues still account for about 60% of GDP, the non-oil sector grew by 10.8% last year, and the financial sector is performing particularly strongly.

Six-month paper will help investors diversify Shariah-compliant portfolios

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Iranian shipping company NITC is a rarity: it's one of the few non-oil and gas companies in the Islamic Republic seeking funds in the international markets.

Zeti Akhtar Aziz reforms Malaysia's financial markets; Fukui achieves much by doing llittle in Japan.

As a new president takes office in Iran and deadlock hits talks with the European Union over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, investors are pondering whether they should enter an economy that might soon be subject to sanctions.

Qatar has become a centre of project finance expertise as the government pursues big industrial and infrastructure projects. Skills have spread from foreign banks to local institutions and are being used in the whole region.

The woman who has run the central bank since 2000 has overseen reform of the exchange rate, the capital markets and the banking industry. With her encouragement the country has also become a hub for Islamic finance.

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