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Islamic finance products proliferating

Islamic finance products are becoming more widely available as demand for sharia-compliant loans and bank accounts continues to grow, according to Lloyds TSB.

The bank's media relations manager Emile Abu-Shakra said that while it is still "early days" for the Islamic finance sector there is now a wide variety of products on offer.

He said the market was "absolutely growing", moving from offering "bread and butter" products such as home loans and basic current accounts to more specialised loans and accounts for students and businesses.

"We started offering Islamic financial products about three years ago and when we started out we were just in five branches around the country. Now we are in 2,000 branches - we have been able to expand because of the popularity," he remarked.

In October last year Clive Briault, managing director of retail markets at the Financial Services Authority, estimated the Islamic finance market to be worth around £250 billion.

And in his first budget last week Chancellor Alistair Darling re-affirmed the government's commitment to promoting the expansion of Islamic finance in the UK.

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