| Malaysia is promoting overseas investment by its takaful firms (Islamic insurers) as it seeks to internationalise its Islamic finance industry, but a lack of expertise and low risk appetite are likely to slow the drive. The takaful firms currently invest little abroad; a shift from the safety of local assets to better-yielding instruments abroad could boost their profits while increasing demand for sukuk (Islamic bonds) from the Gulf.
Malaysia’s takaful firms are already major investors in domestically issued sukuk, holding over 60% of their RM19 billion (US$6.1 billion) of assets in domestic private and government debt securities as of December 2012, according to central bank data. Assets were up 12.4% from a year ago...............................................Full Article: Source
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