Abstract

This study explores the relationship between the development of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and Islamic finance in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. It argues that despite a simultaneous growth in both industries in the petrodollar era, there has been insignificant degree of complementary between them and the size of SWFs investments in Islamic finance is limited. Analysis attributes such divergence to the peculiarity of SWFs’ objectives, decision-making and investment strategy. Islamic finance has yet to provide low-risk long-term investment opportunities that are more attractive to SWFs than that available in the conventional market, hence bringing the industry under the funds’ radar. The study concludes by arguing that despite such limitation, both SWFs and Islamic finance have contributed to economic development and have the potential to overcome such lack of conjunction.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.