ACCA Ireland welcomes the facilitation of Islamic Financing in the Finance Bill

Online, February 8, 2010 (Newswire.com) - ACCA Ireland (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is welcoming the facilitation of Islamic Financing included in the Finance Bill.

Aidan Clifford, ACCA's Advisory Services Manager, said: "ACCA believes that Islamic finance is an increasingly viable route for access to finance, although it is still unclear yet how mainstream it will become in core financial services. It is one of the fastest growing segments of today's banking sector, but the absolute size is still a fraction of conventional banking. Though the impressive growth rates of 10 to 15% per annum seen in recent years emphasise the potential market for such activities and in some jurisdictions it is the dominant
form of finance"

Islamic finance is any finance that is compliant with the principles of Islamic law (Shari'ah). In terms of finance, Shari'ah explains in detail the ethical concepts of money and capital, the relationship between risk and profit and the social responsibilities of financial institutions. And because of its appeal as a potentially ethical form of finance it has attracted considerable attention in the current economic climate.

Aziz Tayyebi, ACCA's expert on Islamic finance said: "This is an extremely welcome decision indeed. Not only should the changes to the Finance Bill facilitate inbound investment into Ireland, but will make Ireland more competitive with other countries that have recently attempted to accommodate Islamic finance. The UK Treasury for example has been working extensively on supporting the Islamic finance sector, and this culminated in the recent Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 Order 2010, which reduces the legal costs for corporate sukuk. The Finance Bill appears to be as far reaching and no less significant for Ireland, and is good news for the Ireland economy as a whole and for the growing Islamic finance industry here too."