Asian demand should help the Islamic bond market recover in the second half from the impact of the global financial crisis, according to HSBC Amanah deputy chief executive Razi Fakhi. High-profile sukuks coming out Indonesia and Malaysia have served as a catalyst, Fakhi said in a telephone interview with Reuters, adding that the company continues to see demand from issuers.
"Sukuk is a critical offering in Islamic finance and is unlikely to fade out," he said. "We are quite optimistic that we will see more issuers coming in the second half."
Fakhi declined to outline Amanah's current pipeline for mandates, citing a quiet period ahead of second quarter earnings. But in an interview with Reuters in February, he said the company was optimistic that it would meet or exceed the 15 mandates it had in 2009 for sukuk.
According to Reuters data, HSBC has already served as Islamic bond manager on 13 sukuk issues in the first half of the year. HSBC Amanah is a wholly-owned unit of Europe's biggest bank, HSBC.
HSBC last week opened its first Islamic branch in Qatar - its first Middle Eastern branch outside of Saudi Arabia - for retail and corporate customers.
Fakih said HSBC was responding to increasing demand for Islamic products in the country and expects Qatar to be "a market for significant growth potential going forward."
Fakih said HSBC sees opportunities to expand its Islamic offerings in corporate banking in Bangladesh in the future beyond its existing small retail presence there.
The company also hopes to expand into Islamic corporate banking in the sultanate of Oman but has no immediate plans to do so.
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