TAKAFUL AND RETAKAFUL INDUSTRY SHOW RAPID GROWTH

Kuala Lumpur, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- The takaful and retakaful
industry continues to show rapid growth and is being increasingly recognised as a major component of the overall Islamic financial system.

Chief executive officer of Islamic Banking and Finance Institue
Malaysia, Dr Adnan Alias said however,the retakaful business in Malaysia
was still limited in terms of capacity.

Therefore, it had a huge opportunity for further expansion.

"As far as takaful is concerned, the growth is very encouraging.But
retakaful is also catching up even if it was introduced later," Adnan
said.

Speaking to reporters at a recent briefing on the 6th International
Islamic Finance Conference 2008 to be held here from Oct 13-14, Adnan said it
required specialised skills and knowledge of the risks being handled to further
expand the takaful and retakaful business.

Currently, he explained, a large part of the retakaful business went to
conventional reinsurers as local retakaful companies lacked the expertise to
handle such risks.

As for Malaysia, he pointed out that the takaful industry had a commendable
track record since its inception more than two decades ago.

The takaful funds stood at RM8.8 billion (US$2.6 billion) in 2007, an
increase of about RM2 billion (US$0.6 billion) from the previous year.

The penetration rate which was about 7 percent in 2007 compared to 5.9
percent in 2006, was considered small since the opportunities abound.