ISLAM BANK: TORONTO, ONTARIO -- It's an unlikely image: staffers at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions - surely one of Ottawa's driest regimes - are busy brushing up on the fine points of sharia law these days to cope with the anticipated expansion of Islamic financial services in Canada.
"Lately we have had more expressions of interest," said Normand Bergevin, managing director at OSFI's approvals and precedents division.
Several people on his staff are learning about business plans, legal structures, accounting methods, types of governance and other issues related to Islamic finance.
"It's fairly new to us," he said. "There's not a whole lot of experience here in terms of supervising or even understanding the different types of products. They all have little twists on them that make them very unlike anything we've ever seen before."
They're likely to see a lot more. Islamic finance is becoming one of the hottest areas in banking and insurance in the world as the Muslim population grows and wealth increases. A Hot New Banking Trend: Sharia-compliant Finance >>> By Tavia Grant | September 14, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Canada) >>>
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