London Can Prosper as Islamic Finance Center, HSBC’s Green Says

 London can expand as a global financial center by offering more Islamic banking services, HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Stephen Green said.

Europe’s largest financial center is already “the leading hub in the Western world” for Islamic finance, with 12 Islamic banks and 10 global banks offering Islamic financial services, Green said yesterday in a speech at the London School of Economics.

“London’s financial center has a long history of gaining first-mover advantage when it comes to new markets,” Green said. Islamic finance is a “very important” addition “to what is otherwise a mature financial services sector here.”

The assets of the top 500 Islamic banks expanded 29 percent to $822 billion in 2009 from the year before, according to ratings company Standard & Poor’s. HSBC provides Islamic financial services through its Amanah unit, started in 1998.

Islamic financial products such as sukuk bonds are governed by Shariah laws, which ban the payment of interest and stipulate agreements be based on the transfer of goods or services.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Clark in London atsclark4@bloomberg.net