Iran tops the new Islamic banking list, according to a new report. Iranian banks hold the lion’s share of Sharia-compliant assets - forty percent or $800 billion of the total two trillion dollars globally, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. Experts anticipate that the assets of Islamic banks will double by 2020, exceeding four trillion dollars, the same report asserted. Sharia-compliant assets have increased 16 percent on average during 2003-2014, based on the analysis of international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), the AFP report stated. Saudi Arabia and Malaysia came second and third by holding 12 and 10 percent of Sharia-compliant assets in the world, respectively. Of the total Shariah-compliant assets, close to 80 percent are in the form of capital, and 15 percent in the form of Sokuk -- financial certificates like bonds which comply with Sharia or the Islamic law. Four percent of these assets are placed in Islamic investment funds, while around one percent is used for insurance.
