Islamic insurance to grow in Mena

Morgan Stanley has said demand for Islamic insurance (takaful) and Islamic re-insurance (retakaful) products would grow in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region as insurance penetration there increases.

Kathy Fear, an insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley, said: "Currently, regional penetration of conventional insurance products is well below that seen in more developed markets in both life and non-life insurance. For instance in the GCC alone insurance penetration as a percentage of GDP is just 0.9 per cent versus 9.45 per cent in the G7 countries [US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan]. Takaful penetration is even lower. For this reason, these regional markets offer substantial growth opportunities."

Fear said: "The youthful demography, with 60 per cent of the global Muslim population being under 25, increasing awareness, a greater desire for Shariah-compliant offerings, and increasing asset based Shariah-compliant financing will drive growth in takaful."

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