Despite the global financial volatility and a dramatic fall in the value of bank shares on the stock market, the industry in Nigeria has proved very resilient and is fully expected to ride out the storm. The watchword now, argues Moin Siddiqi, is consolidation, rather than expansion. More...

Despite huge pent-up demand for home ownership amongst Africa’s new middle classes, the continent’s mortgage sector is still tiny – although it now seems to be finding its feet. Sarah Rundell explains why this is so. More...

Islamic banking, once regarded as an exotic but not very practical system and consigned to the outer fringes of the global industry, is now moving steadily into conventional banking and attracting attention from its non-traditional base. The fact that it eschews charging interest on loans has made it appear the perfect antidote to the excessive greed that characterised conventional banking and led to the current financial crisis. In short, Islamic banking, with its emphasis on ethics and its employment of capital solely as a factor of production rather than as a means of gain, is now the politically correct banking system. More...