MANAMA: Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, and Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector development arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), have released the key findings of the Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI) Report 2015.

The report was launched at the World Islamic Banking conference (WIBC) in Bahrain.

The report, which was released for the third consecutive year, examines the key statistics and trends across five indicators that are deemed to be significant for measuring the development of the $1.8 trillion Islamic finance industry.

These include quantitative development, knowledge, governance, corporate social responsibility and awareness.

These indicators are tracked across 108 countries, which had contributions in all or some of these indicators.

According to the report, Malaysia leads IFDI again while GCC countries continue to dominate the top of the rankings for a third year in a row.

Among the GCC countries, Bahrain maintained its second position globally, while UAE switched positions with Oman to come third, with the latter dropping to fourth.

Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s 2nd biggest jurisdiction in terms of Islamic finance assets, jumped to 6th from 9th overall, largely due to improvement in its CSR activities.

Pakistan, Jordan, Hong Kong, India, Botswana and Ivory Coast are some of the countries that have demonstrated positive movements in the IFDI 2015 ranking.

Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO of ICD, said: “As the leading Islamic finance institution supporting private sector development across the Islamic world, we recognize that the industry requires effective holistic measures to focus our efforts to facilitate and ensure inclusive financial sector development.”