Title: Sovereign sukuk issues: opportunities for Europe

Authors: Federica Miglietta

Addresses: Department DEMDI, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Largo Abbazia di Santa Scolastica, 53, Bari, 70124, Italy

Abstract: In the course of the 2013 Islamic World Forum held in London, the former British Prime Minister David Cameron announced, before an audience of 1800 politicians and businessmen from 115 countries around the world, his government's plans for structuring the first European large sovereign sukuk [Arabic الصكوك]. This announcement was followed, in July 2014, by the first major issuance of sovereign sukuk by a European country. This study analyses the traits of sukuk - Islamic equity certificates - and contains reflections on the state of the European market and on the opportunities that sukuk issues may offer for financing large infrastructure projects or public debt and for multiplying the number of investors desirous of holding public debt issued by European countries in hard currencies.

Keywords: Islamic finance; Islamic certificates; investments; European stock markets; Islamic investments.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIB.2017.085599

International Journal of Financial Innovation in Banking, 2017 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.224 - 238

Received: 11 Jun 2016
Accepted: 12 Nov 2016
Published online: 01 Aug 2017 *

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