Sukuk: los llamados bonos islámicos

Abstract

The worldwide growth of Muslim population and GCC s booming economies have turned Islamic finance into an ever more popular practice area in jurisdictions of Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and to a lesser extent Europe and North America. This paper concisely presents the issuance of Islamic bonds (sukuk), one of the most prevalent Islamic financing mechanisms.

A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in conventional finance, that complies with Shariah. Since the conventional interest-paying bond structure is not permissible under Shariah, the issuer of a sukuk sells an investor group a certificate, and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset, of which the investor group has partial ownership. The issuer must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.

The worldwide growth of Muslim population and GCC s booming economies have turned Islamic finance into an ever more popular practice area in jurisdictions of Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and to a lesser extent Europe and North America. This paper concisely presents the issuance of Islamic bonds (sukuk), one of the most prevalent Islamic financing mechanisms.

A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in conventional finance, that complies with Shariah. Since the conventional interest-paying bond structure is not permissible under Shariah, the issuer of a sukuk sells an investor group a certificate, and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset, of which the investor group has partial ownership. The issuer must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.