The global Islamic syndicated financing market has exceeded US$200 billion in outstanding value, rising 32.5 per cent year on year, according to a new Fitch Ratings report.
However, the global credit agency predicts that issuance will remain flat through 2026 as borrowers increasingly favour sukuk and conventional bonds for funding diversification and regulatory alignment.
In its Global Islamic Syndication Landscape Monitor: 3Q25, Fitch said total syndicated issuance fell 22 per cent year on year to US$38.9 billion by the end of the third quarter of 2025.
The decline comes as issuers in core Islamic finance markets, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Indonesia, Malaysia, Türkiye and Pakistan, turn toward capital market instruments, particularly sukuk, which saw a 23.7 per cent year-on-year increase in issuance.
“We expect global Islamic syndication issuances to remain more or less at the same activity levels we saw in 2025, as issuers increasingly favour sukuk and bonds, driven by investor diversification and regulatory support,” said Bashar Al Natoor, Global Head of Islamic Finance at Fitch Ratings.
“Despite this shift, Islamic syndicated financing continues to offer simpler documentation and faster execution than sukuk and bonds, which supports its sustained relevance.”
Fitch noted that Islamic syndicated financing and sukuk together in core markets reached US$1.2 trillion in outstanding value by the end of the third quarter, up 17.6 per cent year on year. Sukuk accounted for around 85 per cent of that total, while Islamic syndications represented 15 per cent.
The GCC remains the dominant region for Islamic syndicated financing, making up 67.5 per cent of global issuance and 78 per cent of total outstanding value. The UAE led activity within the region, representing 31.3 per cent of all syndicated financing issued in core markets and 38.4 per cent of global Islamic syndication issuance during the period.
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