Bashar Al-Natoor is Fitch Rating’s Global Head Islamic Finance. Bashar is responsible for coordinating all Islamic Finance activities across Fitch’s Sovereign, Financial Institutions, Corporate, Structured Finance, Infrastructure and Insurance teams. Bashar has more than 16 years’ experience in the Islamic Finance market. Prior to joining Fitch, Bashar spent seven years at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in key roles. Bashar graduated with an MSc in banking and financial studies from the Arab Academy for Finance and Banking Science and a BS in finance and banking from Amman University. Bashar is also a Certified Bank Auditor (CBA), a Certified Risk Professional (CRP), a Chartered Market Analyst (FAD-CMA), and a Certified Risk Analyst (CRA).

In this episode, we dig into an entirely new topic that we never covered before with Fitch Ratings’ global head of Islamic finance, Bashar Al-Natoor. We are given an introduction to the Islamic Finance industry, a topic that hasn’t received much attention in the western world. We learn about key Islamic finance terms like sukuk and takaful, as well as learning about the rules that govern Islamic finance and Islamic banking. We talk about the biggest Islamic finance markets, like Dubai, Kuwait and Malaysia. After learning about the basics, we dive into challenges, and opportunities in the market, as well as the future of Islamic finance, including fintech.