ITALY - Crisis: Islamic finance growing but not in Italy

ansamed.ansa.it - (ANSAmed) - MILAN, MAY 16 - Islamic finance is growing at an annual rate of 20%. It has a global value of 1,600 trillion USD and counts 400 institutes with their offices. But the system is not breaking through in Italy, but according to Hatem Abou Said of Al Baraka Banking Group (Bahrain) ''it could be useful also to support SMEs, which have limited access to credit through the traditional systems, with their internationalisation process." Abou Said spoke during a conference in Milan on the issue, saying that the crisis in the West and the Arab Spring ''there is complementarity''.  (source)