Saudi ICD aims to attract new corporates to sukuk markets: CEO

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) aims to expand its capital market activities and attract private corporates to issue sukuk, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing chief executive Ayman Sejiny.

"The next natural step is to identify potential corporates to issue sukuk. Sukuk can help diversify their investor base, so we want to facilitate hard-currency sukuk issuance in those regions," Sejiny said.

ICD has advised several governments on their debut sales of sukuk, including Senegal, Jordan, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Talks are also ongoing between the ICD and several Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries to help them issue sukuk, Sejiny said without giving more details.

"The CIS region is gaining momentum in Islamic finance. We are likely to see sukuk issuance in the coming years, possibly by corporates and central banks."

While much of ICD's focus areas would remain the same, Sejiny said he also planned new initiatives to introduce digitization such as blockchain technology to Islamic financial services.

The Saudi-based arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group, aimed to develop Islamic finance across its 53 member countries and in recent years has focused its work in Africa and central Asia.