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Islamic index on Stock Exchange

David Cameron is unveiling plans for a new Islamic index on the London Stock Exchange to try and establish the City as one of the world's leading centres of Islamic finance.

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Islamic investments expected to top £1.3 trillion

Today's announcement by David Cameron reflects the Government's determination to tap into the fast-growing global market in Islamic investments, which have risen by 150% since 2006 and are expected to be worth £1.3 trillion next year.

Aerial view of the City of London Credit: Press Association

Jodie Ginsberg, from financial think-tank Demos -said: "But we should also use this forum as an opportunity to consider how the principles of Islamic finance itself, not just the money generated in the Muslim world, might be applied in the UK.

"Islamic finance is one of the few models successfully to have weathered the 2008 credit crunch and its aftermath. We should investigate if it perhaps could provide the long-term, patient capital that many enterprises need to survive and thrive."

Islamic index plan for the London Stock Exchange

David Cameron is unveiling plans for a new Islamic index on the London Stock Exchange to try and establish the City as one of the world's leading centres of Islamic finance. The Prime Minister wants the UK to become the first country outside the Islamic world to issue its own Islamic bonds.

Already London is the biggest centre for Islamic finance outside the Islamic world. And today our ambition is to go further still.

Because I don't just want London to be a great capital of Islamic finance in the Western world, I want London to stand alongside Dubai as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the world.

There are some countries which naturally look inwards, pull up the drawbridge and refuse to recognise that the way the world is changing affects their future success. But Britain will not make that mistake.

– David Cameron

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