The launching of the Islamic Interbank Benchmark Rate (IIBR) by Thomson Reuters in Bahrain last week is the latest manifestation of how the technical architecture of the global Islamic financial industry is maturing. To many the pace of maturity remains frustratingly slow, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, while Asia is galloping ahead, which has resulted in a lob-sided West Asia and East Asia fault line.

The search for a purely Shariah-compliant benchmark for pricing Islamic financial transactions and products is not new, whether it applies to Commodity Murabaha deals or Islamic mortgages. Malaysia has tried to set profit rates for its Islamic banking sector devoid from the benchmarks of LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) or KLIBOR (Kuala Lumpur Offered Interbank Rate)……………………………………….Fll Article: Source