Washington: International Monetary Fund, September. 1 The views expressed are mine and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Board or the Federal Open  Market Committee. I am grateful to Chris Erceg for his assistance.
It is now also clear that Islamic financial institutions have not been insulated from the secondround effects of the crisis. Their customers have been just as badly affected by the economic downturn as have been the customers of conventional banks. Recent events have also illustrated the risks of concentrating too many assets in specific sectors such as real estate.