Global Islamic Insurance Industry Still Struggling to Build Scale

At the 9th annual world Islamic insurance conference in Dubai, the emphasis, as usual, was on the industry’s seemingly limitless expansion potential. True, takaful business worldwide increased at around 8% to $19 billion in 2012, with plenty of room for the sector to expand. However, the current takaful industry is very fragmented with few players that can claim to be pan-regional, let alone global players. That in itself adds to the lack of global accountancy, corporate governance and procedural standards. There are currently few signs of heightened mergers and acquisitions activity in the takaful sector, indicating the issue of scale is not one that will be addressed in the near future.