While still a nascent industry, with Islamic assets standing at only 0.5% of conventional assets, the Islamic funds industry is now building positive momentum as it shakes off a period of stagnation. The Islamic funds industry posted 7.6% growth of AuM according to Ernst & Young’s 2011 Islamic Funds & Investment Report (IFIR), launched at the World Islamic Funds & Financial Markets Conference (WIFFMC) in Bahrain. Nevertheless, the challenge remains to grow assets further and the leading players are implementing practical strategies to capture new growth horizons and tap into the highly positive global fundamentals which promise significant potential for Islamic investments.


However, the broader Islamic capital markets are undergoing a significant resurgence as the Sukuk market receives a boost from exciting new cross-border issuances that indicate that confidence and demand are fast returning to the record levels of 2007, further supported by increasing interest from an expanding array of major corporate issuers. In addition, recent advances in key areas such as liquidity management, the emergence of exciting new international jurisdictions to the Islamic debt space, and innovations which are creating the next generation of Islamic financial products, will provide the framework for the industry to make the leap to a truly global level – and to profitably broaden the base of investors and issuers and further expand the global footprint for Islamic funds and investments.

However, some major challenges still remain and more than 400 leaders in the global Islamic investments industry will gather at the 9th Annual World Islamic Funds & Financial Markets Conference (WIFFMC 2013), to be held on the 27th & 28th of May 2013 at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain, to chart new growth horizons and forge winning business models fully in tune with the new economic realities of the Shari'ah-compliant investments market. Again being held in strategic partnership with the Central Bank of Bahrain, WIFFMC has over the past 9 years firmly established itself as the world's largest gathering of Islamic investment leaders.

WIFFMC 2013 has a completely new, updated and interactive agenda, which encourages debate and active audience participation to facilitate rich substantive discussions on the issues that really matter. Key topics that will be discussed at The 9th Annual World Islamic Funds & Financial Markets Conference 2013 include the following: