NEW YORK, June 24, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced it won two awards for its Dow Jones Islamic Market Index Family. Global Finance magazine named the global index provider "Best Shari'ah-Compliant Index Provider". The award will be conferred during an awards ceremony on October 13, 2008 at the National Press Center in Washington. Furthermore, Dow Jones Indexes received the "Global Recognition for a Financial Institution Award". The award was presented at the International Islamic Finance Forum in Dubai.
"The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes are the premier benchmarks for capturing the performance of Shari'ah-compliant stocks and bonds. As Islamic finance continues to grow in importance and in assets managed, industry participants have recognized our leadership and commitment to providing objective, comprehensive measurement tools for this market segment," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "These awards bear testimony to Dow Jones Indexes' expertise and consistency in delivering leading-edge indexes for the Islamic finance industry."
Global Finance magazine awarded those financial institutions that contributed to the growth of Islamic Finance and successfully met their customers' needs for Shari'ah-compliant products, while creating the foundation for continued fast growth in the future. All selections were made by the editors of Global Finance, after extensive consultations with bankers, corporate finance executives and analysts throughout the world. Amid nominally objective criteria were growth in assets, profitability, geographic reach, strategic relationships, new business development and innovation in products. Subjective criteria included opinions of equity analysts, banking consultants and other involved in the industry.
The awards at the annual International Islamic Finance Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were initiated and organized by IIR Middle East. The five award categories were: Lifetime And Continuing Achievements In The Development Of Islamic Finance, Continuing Contributions In Promoting Islamic Finance, Global Recognition In Islamic Finance For A Financial Institution, Global Recognition In Islamic Finance For A Law Firm and Best IT Solution Providers In The Islamic Finance Industry. The awards are designed to promote excellence in Islamic finance and recognize significant contributions and important developments in the Islamic financial sector. A jury of high level experts and scholars from the industry discuss and decide on the winning companies. This year, the judging panel was composed of Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, Dr. Mohammed Daud Bakar, Michael Gassner, Tayeb Dejani and David Loundy who determined the winning institutions in the five different categories. The IIFF awards are presented since 2001.
Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes seek to measure the global universe of investable equities that pass screens for Shari'ah compliance. The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes combine Islamic investment principles with Dow Jones Indexes' objective, transparent and rules-based methodology.
The index family includes more than 70 regional, country and industry indexes derived from the flagship Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index. In 2006 the index family expanded to include the Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index, which combines Islamic investing principles with sustainability criteria; Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index, the first index to track Islamic bonds; and Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Equal Weighted Index, which tracks Shari'ah-compliant stocks in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Islamic blue-chip indexes for Sri Lanka, Dubai and China and Hong Kong were launched last year.
There are currently more than 75 licensees with more than US$7 billion in assets benchmarked to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes.
For more information on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, please visit www.djindexes.com. For more information on the awards, please visit the IIR Middle East website at www.iiff.com and the Global Finance magazine website at www.gfmag.com.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com.
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About Dow Jones Indexes
A full-service index provider, Dow Jones Indexes develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes also is co-owner of the Dow Jones STOXX indexes, the world's leading pan-European indexes, and together with Wilshire Associates, provides the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index family, which is anchored by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and covers more than 12,000 securities in 59 markets. Beyond equity indexes, Dow Jones Indexes maintains a number of alternative indexes, including measures of the hedge fund and commodity markets. Dow Jones indexes are maintained according to clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. www.djindexes.com
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