By adhering to its principles, Islamic banking and finance has grown in recent decades from a peripheral financial network to a sizeable complementary system within the globalised economy. Today, it is expanding throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe, far beyond core markets such as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
The global growth of Islamic banking - which shuns riba, or interest - is opening up opportunities for job seekers and those already in the banking sector who want to enhance their professional development.
In many respects, HSBC is leading the way outside the Muslim world, according to Razi Fakih, deputy CEO of the Dubai-based HSBC Amanah, part of the HSBC group.
'We're the first in the industry to build a global curriculum so HSBC sales managers can better understand Islamic finance,' he says. 'The curriculum, produced through significant investment of resources, combines tailored e-learning modules with instructor-led training and external accreditations. Content for the training is developed from a global perspective, but details and examples take in Shariah interpretations in each country.'
HSBC Amanah also recently conducted advanced Shariah classroom-training for staff who will benefit from such in-depth exposure, Fakih says. 'Participants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain listened to Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, a world-renowned Shariah scholar - who also sits on HSBC Amanah's central Shariah committee - talk about topics such as Shariah objectives, Islamic contracts and Shariah monitoring,' he adds.
Besides this, his bank also offers an Amanah - Arabic for 'trustworthiness' - graduate programme as part of its talent management scheme.
'We continue to build a specialist talent pool for Islamic finance through tailored training freely available to HSBC staff, and dedicated recruitment programmes including the Amanah graduate programme - an opportunity for candidates to gain broad exposure to our Islamic business worldwide,' he says.