Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain – 15 September 2026 – The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), the leading infrastructure development institution in the Islamic finance industry, today announced the publication of the fifteenth (15th) edition of its annual Sukuk Report, featuring comprehensive 2025 data. This landmark edition reveals that the combined global Sukuk market has crossed a historic threshold, with the "USD 1 Trillion" mark verified by combining the international outstanding (USD 280.58B) and domestic outstanding (USD 734.93B) volumes to equal USD 1.015 Trillion. This milestone represents an unprecedented achievement and marks the beginning of a new era of growth for the global Islamic finance industry, while also reflecting the accelerating expansion and deepening maturity of the global Islamic capital markets.
A virtual webinar event marked the launch, attracting international experts to discuss the future developmental outlook of the Sukuk market. Discussions focused heavily on resolving the structural complexities of asset-backed versus asset-based Sukuk, the underlying legal and Shariah issues involved and the pressing need for standardizing documentation to drive the sector's growth and innovation.
The report finds that total international Sukuk issuance staged a powerful rebound, surging 50.8% to reach USD 98.9 billion in 2025, the fastest-growing segment of the market. Concurrently, total domestic Sukuk issuance rose 17.5% to stand at USD 163.9 billion, pushing combined global Sukuk issuance past the historic USD 262.9 billion mark, up 28.2% year-on-year, the strongest annual growth in years. By issuer status, Sovereign issuances remained dominant at 52.3% of the global total (USD 137.5 billion, +15.6%), but Quasi-sovereign issuers stole the spotlight, surging 66.5% to a record USD 52.3 billion and lifting their share of the global market to 19.9%. Corporate issuances (USD 33.5 billion, +39.4%) and Financial Institution issuances (USD 39.6 billion, +28.8%) also outpaced Sovereign growth, underscoring a broadening base of global Sukuk issuers.
Structurally, Sukuk Al Ijarah became the leading vehicle in the domestic market at 24.28% (USD 39.8 billion), dethroning Sukuk Al Murabahah which historically led prior years. In the short-term liquidity space, the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) had a standout year, issuing a massive USD 22.9 billion across 69 issuances, capturing 32.1% of total global short-term volume.
On a cumulative basis for the 2001–2025 period, Malaysia maintains its dominant position in global Sukuk issuances with USD 1,080.77 billion (43.69%), followed by Saudi Arabia at USD 379.16 billion (15.33%), and Indonesia at USD 237.93 billion (9.62%).
Commenting on the industry's future direction, Mr. Affendi Rashdi, Vice Chairman of IIFM, stated: “As Islamic finance enters its next phase of growth, our focus must be on building a more connected, efficient and innovative global ecosystem. By strengthening cross-border Shariah compliant liquidity flows, advancing tokenised Sukuk at scale and continuing to innovate in meeting evolving financing needs, we can unlock greater value and relevance for the global economy.”
Dr. Ahmed Rufai, Acting CEO of IIFM, added: "The future of the global Sukuk market rests on our ability to combine structural refinement with digital innovation. Addressing the operational differences between asset backed and asset-based instruments, alongside standardizing documentation, remains the cornerstone of building a mature market. By uniting these legal standards with emerging technologies such as digital tokenization, we can reduce issuance costs, make Sukuk accessible to individual investors through smaller fractional units, and strengthen the sustainability of Islamic capital markets worldwide."
Dr. Sudarmawan Samidi, Economist at Bank Indonesia, highlighted: “Indonesia’s Sukuk market has reached cumulative sovereign issuance of IDR 3,560.53 trillion, with outstanding SBSN at IDR 1,763.02 trillion as of August 2026. The growing role of SUKBI and SUVBI, alongside stronger secondary market activity, reflects Indonesia’s commitment to deepening liquidity and innovation. These efforts reinforce Indonesia’s position as a leading global hub for Sukuk and Islamic finance.”
Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Abbasi, Executive Director, State Bank of Pakistan, remarked: “I commend International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) for its vital role in creating standardized legal documentation for the global Islamic financial institutions. In case of Pakistan, the Sukuk market is entering an important phase whereby going forward, our focus is on broadening the range of Shariah‑compliant instruments, strengthening the underlying asset ecosystem and enhancing market depth to support the transformation process from conventional to Islamic.”