11 May, 2015Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform wins Euromoney award for innovation in Islamic Finance

Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform has won the prestigious Euromoney Award for Innovation in Islamic Finance 2015.

The Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform is a visionary initiative by Nasdaq Dubai and Emirates Islamic (EI) and its subsidiary Emirates Islamic Financial Brokerage (EIFB). The platform provides a unique solution for EI and other financial institutions and their corporate and individual customers to conduct Islamic financing transactions in a streamlined, flexible and transparent manner. In less than a year since its launch, the platform has achieved rapid growth, with transactions turnover exceeding AED 31 billion.

The Euromoney Islamic finance awards are widely regarded as benchmark awards for the global Islamic finance industry. The awards are judged on innovation, quantity and quality, cross border, and promoting the growth of the industry. Nominees are selected and judged by an expert in-house panel comprising Euromoney’s Editor, journalists covering the region and the head of the awards research department.

Hamed Ali, Chief Executive of Nasdaq Dubai, said: "The Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform combines best practice international capital markets standards with the particular requirements of Sharia’a financing. By facilitating fast and reliable transactions at fixed cost, it provides an effective and convenient facility in a regional time zone for a range of corporate and individual users."

Commenting on the award, Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Islamic stated,"The Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform is a great example of the innovation driving Dubai’s vision of becoming the global hub of the Islamic economy. We are delighted that the platform has received recognition for its ground-breaking approach and contribution to the development of the Islamic economy. As one of the largest Islamic banks in the region, Emirates Islamic is honoured to be among the key contributors of this initiative."

The Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform offers significant advantages over alternative Murabaha channels. It can be used equally to help a company raise capital to expand, or an individual to obtain money to buy a house. The platform utilizes Sharia-compliant Certificates that are traded in Nasdaq Dubai’s Central Securities Depository (CSD). The Certificates are based on Wakala investments, such as Sukuk, that have been developed by EI and other financial institutions as the underlying assets for all the financing transactions.