Afaq Khan

News stories since the financial crisis have given mixed messages regarding the success or failure of Islamic banking in weathering the financial storm. Afaq Khan, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Saadiq, the Islamic arm of Standard Chartered Bank, spoke with Executive to set the record straight. Has confidence in Islamic financing tools and sukuks suffered in the last year or two? No absolutely not. Sukuk issuance has slowed down but that is not a good [indication] that the confidence in the instrument has suffered. Sukuks are designed to raise medium-term capital for expansion. As the global economy has slowed down and some markets where we were seeing a lot of issuances have slowed down, the need for medium-term capital has also slowed down. But the confidence in the instrument itself remains completely intact. I have not had one single conversation, whether with the investor or with the issuer or