Islamic Depositary Receipts (IDRs) as a Panacea

Abstract

Many Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stock markets are still in their early stage of development. In this stage, several conditions such as weak legal system and regulations, a limited supply of institutional investors, lack of transparency and accountability are key hurdles. Several approaches have been taken to enhance the capacity and integration of stock markets to promote intra-investment among the OIC countries by Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). They indicated an urgent need to intensify the Islamic product issuance onto the various international financial exchanges, especially the introduction of Islamic global depositary receipts (IDRS) to create liquidity in the Islamic capital market. Thus, this study is to examine the current depositary receipts in the OIC countries, the need to have IDRS, possible challenges and recommendation in implementing IDRS. The study recommends that the OIC countries with surplus capital will assist those OIC countries with capital shortage. Consequently by having IDRS, there is less reliance on the Western exchanges and disintermediation of the middle man and more value creation amongst the OIC member states' stock exchanges.