SINGAPORE - Islamic Bank of Asia focus on Gulf investors

The Islamic Bank of Asia, which is backed by Southeast Asia's top bank DBS, will focus on courting Gulf wealth and growing Islamic bonds, private equity and REIT deals to drive its business, its chief executive said.
The lender has struggled to compete against other Islamic banks in the region since its establishment in 2007 due to tough market conditions in the Middle East and a lack of interest in sharia banking in Singapore.

Toby O'Connor, Islamic Bank of Asia's chief executive, said the lender would be a channel for Middle Eastern investors seeking exposure to Asia.

'A lot of the GCC countries where we're primarily focused do not have large populations, with the exception of Saudi,' said O'Connor, who joined the Singapore bank last month after 19 years at JP Morgan. (source)

SINGAPORE - Singapore eyes big role in Islamic finance

Is the so-called impressive growth of Islamic finance in Asia more to do with hype than reality? Leaving aside the core markets of Malaysia and perhaps Brunei, where most of the recent developments in Islamic banking have been confined, nothing much is happening in the rest of Asia. At best it is work in progress with governments and regulators either consulting or reviewing existing legislation to see how best tax neutrality and other measures can be introduced for the facilitation of Islamic financial products.