Reuters Summit-As scholars quibble, sharia banks eye convergence

"Bai bithaman ajil will be there," said Azrulnizam Abd Aziz, chief executive of Standard Chartered Saadiq Berhad. "However, I would say less and less issuance and products will be structured under the bai inah and bai bithaman ajil."

A globally acceptable standard may be harder to attain.

"Global standards emerge only after strong national standards," said Humayon Dar, BMB Advisors chief executive.

"There is a need for strong national sharia standards, the kind of thing that Malaysia, Pakistan and Sudan are putting in place. Once you have a number of these national standards out there, you can then look to cross-border standards."

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Dubai) (Click on [ID:nISLAMIC] for more Islamic finance stories and ISLAMIC for a speed guide)

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)