Thomson Reuters Hires Siddiqui As Head of Islamic Finance

Taps former Dow Jones Index executive to grow the business in this sector.

Thomson Reuters has named Rushdi Siddiqui to head up its Islamic Finance business, reflecting an investment the financial informationi provider is making in the sector.

Siddiqui came from Dow Jones where he built their Islamic Finance Indices business over the past 10 years.

In this newly created role, Siddiqui will utilize Thomson Reuters’ existing assets and work closely with Islamic finance and banking professionals including fund managers, treasury, financial hubs, regulators, stock exchanges, central banks, Takafol (insurance) entities, Halal industry, intra-OIC (57 Muslim countries), trade, investment, as well as others to strengthen and grow the business.

According to today’s release, Thomson Reuters has been active in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia since 1865, and its Islamic Finance assets cover content, news, analytics and trading capabilities.

In a statement, Siddiqui, said,” Thomson Reuters has deep roots and strong assets in the existing and emerging hubs of Islamic finance, which I found very attractive." Siddiqui goes on to say that the Thomson Reuters platform addresses several of the bottlenecks hindering the growth of Islamic Finance including the reduction of information search costs, connectivity to the global Islamic finance community, and executing transactions. “I am looking forward to this new challenge and aim to support of all aspects of Islamic finance and building bridges to its brethren — the social-ethical and sustainability industry players and funds,” stated Siddiqui.

Thomson Reuters has regional headquarters in Dubai, with 600 staff in 68 countries across the Middle East and Africa region. The news provider covers all the exchanges in the Middle East, the Sukkuk bond market, regional commodities and its Lipper division covers all the funds in the Gulf, and across the Middle East and Africa region is covering all 1,000 companies with a primary listing. Reuters News has been adding editorial positions to expand news coverage into commodities, property and telecommunications as well as Arabic service.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio