Visit to No. 11 Downing Street

The UK Government is taking Islamic finance very seriously. Ed Balls MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, has spoken on Islamic finance at conferences in London at least three times within the last year, and once in the United Arab Emirates.

The Government’s desire to develop Islamic finance in the UK led recently to my first ever visit to Downing Street. This was for a consultation meeting chaired by Mr Balls.

It does seem that there is an acknowledgement of the importance of two key issues:

• Financial inclusion – changes have been made to tax law to enable Muslims who object to the payment or receipt of interest to access Islamic personal financial services such as mortgages and savings accounts.
• UK Competitiveness – The City of London is very important to the UK economy. As Islamic finance grows internationally, the UK will benefit from cross border transactions being channelled through London, in the same way as the UK dominates the eurobond market.

The Treasury issued a press release shortly after the meeting which contains some more background and also a full list of the participants. It can be accessed on the Treasury website.

Mohammed Amin