Six years hence, the Islamic financial landscape has been dramatically transformed into a vibrant, dynamic and competitive global intermediation mechanism that is supported by more than 300 Islamic financial institutions in more than 75 countries. It also has become among the fastest growing segments in the financial services industry. In the early phase of its development, Islamic finance was essentially domestic centric, focussing on retail financing, trade financing and the financing of other commercial business activities. Two recent developments have however, influenced the subsequent direction of the development of Islamic finance. Firstly, the drive to diversify the domestic financial infrastructure so as to avoid the over dependence on the banking sector and secondly, the trend towards greater liberalisation of the financial system. These two trends have spurred the development of the Islamic financial markets and its greater integration into the international financial system, thereby raising the international dimension of Islamic finance. This more dynamic environment, has fostered the generation of a wide spectrum of Islamic financial instruments that has ranged from instruments to manage liquidity to structures for the financing of that for financing mega investments. These developments have led to the emergence of a new asset class. It has also drawn a higher level of foreign participation in the Islamic financial markets which has resulted in increased cross-border flows. This has not only contributed to enhancing international financial inter-linkages between economies but it has also contributed towards the more efficient allocation of financial resources across borders.

Opening remarks at the econoME launch event Remarks given by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England  Court Room, Bank of England 27 April 2018  I am grateful to Jennifer Nemeth for her assistance in preparing these remarks and to David Bholat, Andreas Joseph and John Lowes for their work on the data analysis, and Rupal Patel, Emma Sinclair and Ratidzo Starkey for their help on the background research. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  Welcome Good afternoon and welcome to the Bank of England. We are here today to discuss the value of an economics education and to launch formally the Bank’s new education outreach initiatives, in particular the teaching materials we have cleverly dubbed “econoME”. We think economics education is important for three reasons: 1. It helps young people understand the world around them and equips them with the skills to make important financial decisions throughout their lives; 2. It demystifies the Bank of England’s role, helping make what we do more effective while also holding us to account; and 3. It can inspire more young people into careers in economics, finance and business, improving diversity in these fields while fostering more sustainable growth for all. The demand for improving economics education is there – over three quarters of the public believe that 1  economics should be taught in schools. The supply isn’t. Only a third of schools offer children the option to study economics from the age of 14.