Thomas Reuters has announced that it now offers a new service catering to the Islamic finance industry, including a gateway that provides up-to-date information on the market, services, and shariah-compliant companies.

“Despite its image as an emerging industry, Islamic finance has now grown to be worth around $1 trillion and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway opens up this world of opportunities for [the] financial market,” said Rushdi Siddiqui, global head of Islamic finance at Thomson Reuters.

According to Reuters, the Islamic Finance Gateway offers detailed information about and links to Islamic finance professionals, rating agencies, industry standards bodies, Islamic finance hubs, index providers, consulting firms, 400 sharia scholars and Islamic subsidiaries from over 25 countries. Market professionals can access comprehensive, multi-asset class information on a wide range of Islamic finance instruments such as sukuks, Islamic leveraged loans, funds, the Islamic money market, takaful and currencies. Publicly listed sharia-based and screened companies and Islamic or commodity ETFs can be traded over the Thomson Reuters Trading for Exchanges (TRTex) platform, which has been integrated within the Gateway.

For the full press release, please click here: http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/tf/tf_gen_business/2010_02_16_islamic_finance

Thomas Reuters, which owns Westlaw Business, announced that it has formed an agreement with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) to provide standards and other Islamic finance industry information for global business and law professionals. AAOIFI helps address issues that determine whether certain transactions or activities are compliant with Sharia laws and this information is essential in providing practitioners with the insights necessary to successfully structure transactions. AAOIFI standards are developed in consultation with leading Sharia scholars and experts in the field of banking, insurance, economics, law and asset management, thereby contributing to the professional development of the industry.

Full story here: http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=42749&t=1&c=35&cg=4&mset=1011