The issuance of sukuk is a relatively recent phenomenon. It began in Malaysia in 1990 with the small issuance of RM120 million (US$30 million) by Shell Malaysia and has progressed to the largest issuance size to date of RM10 billion (US$2.7 billion) by Rantau Abang Capital Berhad.

Impressively for what began as a 'conventional' financial system, around 75% of all Malaysian corporate financing was conducted using Islamic principles in 2005.

Global sukuk market has been growing tremendously for the past few years and Malaysian sukuk represents 67% of the total.

The sukuk market brings with it many benefits to both issuers and investors. Issuers can benefit from the huge increase in liquidity in the Islamic world, and can tap on these new relatively-lower-cost sources of funds.

Despite corporate issuers, multilateral agencies such as International Finance Corporation (IFC) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) have also followed the footstep by issuing sukuk in Malaysia for financing development projects.