Goldman Sachs raised $500 million with its debut sale of Islamic bonds on Tuesday, becoming the first conventional U.S. bank to issue sukuk as Islamic finance develops beyond its traditional homes in the Middle East and southeast Asia. The bank drew about $1.5 billion of orders for the five-year sukuk, reflecting heavy demand among cash-rich Islamic funds for new credits. An initial attempt by Goldman to sell sukuk in 2011, when it registered a $2 billion issuance programme with the Irish Stock Exchange, ran into suspicions among some analysts that it might violate Islamic bans on interest payments and monetary speculation. Although the bank insisted that those concerns were unfounded, it never went ahead with the 2011 issue. This time, Goldman adjusted the sukuk structure and enlisted several heavyweight Gulf banks to arrange the sale, and it appeared to avoid any controversy. "I think they have worked hard to address the issues people had the last time around," said Abdul
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