Best Islamic bank in Bahrain

Best Islamic fund manager

Most innovative deal

Best sukuk house

Best Islamic bank in Qatar

Best assurance and advisory firm

Best Islamic bank in Indonesia

A decade after Malaysia sold the first global sovereign sukuk, the market is growing from strength to strength, as are the traditional Islamic finance leaders.

Best Islamic bank in Kuwait

Best sukuk deal

Best real estate deal

Best Islamic bank in UAE

Best international Islamic bank

Best Islamic bank in Asia

With little happening in regional equity issuance, the most important deals in 2012 in the Middle East, even more than other emerging regions, were in debt – and, in particular, sukuk. This was the year when Islamic capital market issuance really found its voice, from Qatar’s international record $4 billion sukuk to a Turkish sovereign debut, Axiata’s dim sum sukuk and important domestic deals in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. There was a record $144 billion of issuance in 2012, according to Ifis, part of the Euromoney group.

In the Middle East rising sukuk issuance gave a new angle to the global emerging market debt boom. Sovereigns and supranationals launched daring benchmark deals, while in sub-Saharan Africa an outrageous last-gasp hijacking of a deal redefined the way China approaches M&A.

Global capital markets underwent a remarkable recovery last year as bond and equity markets soared, creating a fertile dealmaking environment that few had foreseen at the start of the year. By the end, an impressive volume and variety of capital raisings had hit the markets, highlighting a voracious appetite for risk and complexity that bankers were only too happy to satisfy. Even in M&A.

In an interview in his office in Riyadh, Suliman Azzabin, chief executive of Al Rajhi Bank, pours scorn on allegations that link his bank to terrorist financing repeated in the US Senate report on HSBC last year. So what is Al Rajhi Bank in 2013 really, and how is it still making so much money?

State desperate for new funding sources; controversy at heart of political divide

Regulators have regained their reformist muscle in the shape of Mark Carney, Bank of Canada governor and chairman of the Financial Stability Board. In a wide-ranging interview, Carney talks about recent banking scandals, the Volcker Rule, and why fears about Basle III are wide of the mark.

After setbacks in May, EFG Hermes and QInvest will merge by the end of November, but despite economic and political turmoil, the joint venture is gunning for growth.

The country has the potential to cement its position as the world’s leading centre for Islamic finance, but a lack of standardization is causing problems, particularly for international expansion.

As South East Asia’s largest economy with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia should be well placed to have a burgeoning Islamic finance sector. But instead, Indonesia lags way behind Malaysia on this front. Add to this Indonesia’s lack of infrastructure, and the economy is hardly running at full capacity.

HSBC’s advertising slogan for many years was the "world’s local bank", now media headline writers are dubbing the bank: "The world’s local money launderer". Always considered conservative, well run and frankly a bit stodgy, HSBC has stumbled badly. And we are all like stunned moles blinking in the sunlight, following a 340-page report from a US Senate subcommittee accused HSBC of laundering cash for terrorists, drug barons and dictators through many of its subsidiaries.

$2.6 billion Islamic loan maturity; Paves way for takeover battle

The bank has made good use of its global presence, bringing new pools of liquidity to emerging market borrowers.