On the eighth day of January 2013, our fair group visited the Dubai Financial Market, sat through a lecture on Islamic Banking, and sipped tea at a 7 star sail-boat shaped hotel that sells $50,000 cell phones in the lobby.
After touring through the trading floor of the DFM, we learned their market is very much the same as our own in the US - rules, regulations, technological trading and security systems. Whereas the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) operates in the free zone outside the jurisdiction of UAE (we visited the DIFC earlier on in our adventure), the DFM operates under federal authority under the UAE's jurisdiction.
Islamic Banking is an interesting system that creatively side steps Muslim law particularly with regard to Riba, or interest, which is illegal to charge. So, for very conservative muslims, this opens the door for banking and financing opportunities that was once closed. It's kind of like a mortgage - for everything you'd want to finance. With a fixed profit load instead of interest. Por ejemplo, I want to buy a car. I sign a contract with the bank. The bank buys the car for, say, $30K (market price) and sells the car to me for $35K, which I purchase in monthly payments over the course of four years. There exist similar methods with taking out lines of credit (like Islamic credit cards). Unique risks and complexities exist within this method of banking, no doubt, but a considerable amount of literature exists that provides greater detail around the pros (and cons) and growth of this system. Check it.
We capped our evening rather luxuriously taking tea at the Burj Al Arab, one of two 7 star hotels that exist in the world. Google it. Colorful. Decadent. Fragrant. Smooth.
Looking out from our room high up in the tower at the beams of white steel that halo the hotel, it seemed ripe for a Bond style chase scene that ends with a leap from the hotel's helipad with a one handed grasp onto an escaping helicopter.
I digress. Here's the breakdown of tea, by course:
I. Champagne
II. Crustless mini-sammies: lox, cucumber, beef, chix and tuna salads
III. Salmon Wellington
IV. Biscuits with clotted cream and jams
V. Desert Pastries and Coffee, Tea
VI. Assorted truffles
VII. Kareha Out
After touring through the trading floor of the DFM, we learned their market is very much the same as our own in the US - rules, regulations, technological trading and security systems. Whereas the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) operates in the free zone outside the jurisdiction of UAE (we visited the DIFC earlier on in our adventure), the DFM operates under federal authority under the UAE's jurisdiction.
Islamic Banking is an interesting system that creatively side steps Muslim law particularly with regard to Riba, or interest, which is illegal to charge. So, for very conservative muslims, this opens the door for banking and financing opportunities that was once closed. It's kind of like a mortgage - for everything you'd want to finance. With a fixed profit load instead of interest. Por ejemplo, I want to buy a car. I sign a contract with the bank. The bank buys the car for, say, $30K (market price) and sells the car to me for $35K, which I purchase in monthly payments over the course of four years. There exist similar methods with taking out lines of credit (like Islamic credit cards). Unique risks and complexities exist within this method of banking, no doubt, but a considerable amount of literature exists that provides greater detail around the pros (and cons) and growth of this system. Check it.
We capped our evening rather luxuriously taking tea at the Burj Al Arab, one of two 7 star hotels that exist in the world. Google it. Colorful. Decadent. Fragrant. Smooth.
Looking out from our room high up in the tower at the beams of white steel that halo the hotel, it seemed ripe for a Bond style chase scene that ends with a leap from the hotel's helipad with a one handed grasp onto an escaping helicopter.
I digress. Here's the breakdown of tea, by course:
I. Champagne
II. Crustless mini-sammies: lox, cucumber, beef, chix and tuna salads
III. Salmon Wellington
IV. Biscuits with clotted cream and jams
V. Desert Pastries and Coffee, Tea
VI. Assorted truffles
VII. Kareha Out
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