"September 11 and Iraq seem to have been the two major drivers of Islamic investment funds." says Warren Edwardes, ceo of London based financial product developer and risk consulting firm, Delphi Risk Management. "The fingerprinting of 'terrorist' races has annoyed many Arab investors and there has been a significant shift out of US based assets particularly in US real estate over the past year into Middle Eastern and European real estate and negotiable assets. Furthermore, credit lines have dried up for a number of Islamic financial institutions with Arab names that sound superficially like those on US dossiers. This has forced these institutions to increase their cash holdings to maintain liquidity. But the dearth of short term Shariah compliant liquidity funds has heightened this liquidity trap. Accordingly there are a number of initiatives afoot to plug this gap in the market and deliver highly rated liquid Islamic investment funds."

 

Warren Edwardes is CEO of Delphi Risk Management, the London-based financial product creativity, communication and control consultancy.

Warren was previously on the board of Charterhouse Bank and has worked in the treasury divisions of Barclays Bank, British Gas and Midland Bank. He first researched into what were later to be called "derivatives" in 1975 and was part of the team that executed one of the world's first currency swaps in 1981. Since then he has devised and transacted numerous structures that form part of the history of derivatives. Warren can be contacted via we@dc3.co.uk

Warren Edwardes <note  spelling of edwardes> is author of best seller "Key financial instruments: understanding and innovating in the world of derivatives" which includes an appendix on Islamic Banking.  see http://dc3.co.uk/kfi