There are only a few truly global banking institutions that provide a full range of sophisticated shariah-compliant advice, products and services. HSBC leads this select group, making it Euromoney’s best international Islamic bank for 2024.
Its leadership was evident across multiple areas last year, from sukuk, murabaha, trade and supply-chain financing, to sustainable and structured finance, hedging, securities services, wealth and personal banking. Its head of Islamic finance is Mohammed Dawood.
Extensive coverage from wholesale to retail banking, principally through its Malaysia-based Islamic banking business HSBC Amanah, is one of the bank’s key strengths. Combine this with its international presence, especially in the key Islamic markets of UAE, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, and it creates a powerful mix of global and local expertise.
The bank was involved in many firsts during the awards period. Some of the more high-profile came in the sukuk market, where the bank is a frontrunner in lead managing sukuks across currencies. It led the inaugural $3.5 billion dual tranche, RegS sukuk for Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF); the $4.5 billion triple-tranche project bond and sukuk financing – the first of its kind globally – for Greensaif Pipelines; and the $1 billion debut sukuk for the Philippines.
Each transaction had an element of structural innovation in it: the PIF sukuk included a ground-breaking structure to make it easier for holding companies globally to use eligible shares in portfolio companies as sukuk assets. Innovation on the Philippines sukuk – which combines the ijara and wakala formats with a commodity murabaha component – centred on it being issued via a newly established special purpose trust – the first done this way instead of via a special purpose vehicle.
HSBC lead managed multiple other inaugural and innovative sukuks last year – including green and sustainability structures for issuers such as UAE logistics group DP World, Al Rajhi Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank – as well as murabaha facilities for a range of borrowers across sectors and countries.
HSBC’s ability to innovate is clearly a strength, but supporting this is its expertise across a comprehensive range of shariah-compliant products
Among those green sukuks, DP World’s debut – a $1.5 billion 10-year RegS senior unsecured sukuk – was a standout as the first of its kind dual environmental, social and governance framework transaction referencing use of proceeds and key performance indicator-linked issuance from the shipping and ports sector globally.
HSBC’s ability to innovate is clearly a strength, but supporting this is its expertise across a comprehensive range of shariah-complaint products. Some of these include liquidity support in the secondary sukuk and repo markets, rates products such as Islamic deposits, profit-rate and cross-currency swaps, as well as foreign exchange and structured products, from deposit repacks and cash-settled options to hedging and Islamic structured note programmes.
The bank’s Islamic business continues to go from strength to strength globally and in the core regional markets of the Middle East and southeast Asia.
