Sharia Standard May See Gold Surge
“The introduction of a Sharia standard for gold will not only be good for investors but also for gold producing countries and even individual mining operations”, according to The National in an article published this morning.
Gold bars in a gold shop in Saudi Arabia. Gold has long played a role in Muslim society as a store of wealth. Fahad Shadeed / Reuters
“The new Sharia gold standard is very important as it allows Islamic investors to access and gain exposure to physical gold in a safer and more efficient manner,” says Mark O’Byrne, the executive director at the bullion trader GoldCore in London.
“It will increase the diversity of available Sharia gold-compliant investment products and spark greater emphasis on the role of physical gold coins and bars.”
GoldCore research shows that if just 1 per cent of Islamic finance goes into gold, demand could increase by up to an enormous 1,000 tonnes a year. Even if demand comes in at half that it means the gold market will undergo a considerable shake-up.
Last month the Sharia Standard was approved as a collaboration between the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the Islamic standard-setting body, and The World Gold Council (WGC) in London.
“We launched the standard to enable greater access to gold for the Islamic investment community,” says Natalie Dempster, the managing director, central banks and public policy at the WGC. Currently, the WGC is talking to Islamic financiers and product developers as well as scholars over how to put the standard into practice.
Much as it is in the rest of the world, gold has long played a role in Muslim society as a store of wealth and as a means to facilitate trade.
Above are excerpts from ‘Gold set to surge on Sharia standard’ which was published in The National today. The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It can be read in full here
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