LAUSR

The sukuk market is a large and fast-growing segment of Islamic capital markets. But the challenges that post-Soviet countries, authorities and firms face in the adoption of sukuk strategies are mainly due to the scarce awareness of Islamic finance principles and practices, and to some suspicion of Islamic instruments that does not yet seem well-known and accepted on the global financial markets. In this regard, the current study attempts to describe the history and current state of the global sukuk market based on the evidence obtained from the secondary sources. Data were gathered using the qualitative method of systematic literature review technique. The main empirical corpus was formed from Islamic Financial Services Board and International Islamic Financial Market reports from 2010 to 2022. The initial corpus was then significantly expanded by means of content analysis of open media source. Thus this study synthesizes existing literature on the sukuk market published in the past decade. This study illustrates: (i) the history of the sukuk market starting from 1990s and the evolution of sukuk from the instrument of corporate funding to the instrument of sovereign financing; (ii) dynamics and structure of the global sukuk market, purposes and the currencies of the sukuk issuances; (iii) regional distribution and the key markets for sukuk issuances; (iv) statistics of defaults, pricing policy and yields of sukuk; (v) demand for sukuk and investors’ distribution by types and regions. In conclusion, this study offers new insights into the prospects and challenges of the application of sukuk as an alternative financing instrument in the CIS countries.