IslamicFinance.de

Press Release

The report provides investors with an in-depth overview of the various asset classes in Islamic wealth management along with a synopsis of the market scenario during the past 18 months. The report also explores the concept of estate and succession planning, which Sarasin believes is insufficiently addressed in the Islamic finance industry and is a key element of Sarasin’s Islamic wealth management offering. Finally, the report provides an insight into the bank’s economic outlook for 2010.

The key issues and challenges addressed in the report are:

• how Sharia screening reduced the downside in volatile markets and how it affects the finance industry and investors,
• the behaviour of direct real estate investments in comparison with real estate funds and Sharia-compliant real estate investment trusts,
• the income-related role of Sukuk within Islamic balanced portfolios and the probability of defaults,
• a comparison between various Islamic investment funds ranging from income-oriented to commodity, real estate and equity funds,
• the size and future of the Islamic private equity and venture capital industry,
  
  Source: 

  http://www.sarasin.ch/internet/iech/en/islamic_wealth_report-2.pdf

IslamicFinance.de has created a fanpage on Facebook - for all the users wishing to follow the news abstracts on the Facebook platform. Please join and enjoy!

"The current economic crisis should warn us to fundamentally rethink the development of the moral framework
and the regulatory mechanisms that underpin our economy, politics and global interconnectedness. It would be a wasted opportunity for all of us if we pretended that the crisis was simply a momentary hurdle. If we want to keep society together, then a sense of community and solidarity are more important now than ever before.The most fundamental question today is whether we can adopt a more communitarian spirit or whether we will fall back into old habits and excesses, thereby further undermining social peace.

This Report, Faith and the Global Agenda:Values for the Post-Crisis Economy, produced by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Georgetown University, is the first effort of its kind, seeking to enhance understanding of the values that will be vital for our collective future and the positive role that faith plays in articulating those values."

Download at:

https://www.weforum.org/pdf/faith/valuesreport.pdf

Geneva-based Faisal Private Bank announced it had appointed Swiss national Mark Koch to replace outgoing Chief Executive Marco Rochat from Jan. 1 with a mandate to broaden the Islamic finance focus of the bank.

Geneva-based Faisal Private Bank has warned it could face foreclosure on parts of its real estate portfolio unless investors stump up cash to keep lenders at bay, documents seen by Reuters show.

Gatehouse Bank launches with Sustainable Assets Management (SAM) an Islamic compliant mutual fund focussing on sustainability-oriented companies that offer technologies, products and services throughout the entire value chain of the water industry.

Faisal Private Bank's Chief Executive, Marco Rochat, said the absence of a global set of harmonised rules on sharia compliance created an unlevel playing field, reported Martin de Sa'Pinto on Reuters. Faisal Private Bank adivses on nearly USD 500 mn.

I just published an article with the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes Newsletter, giving an overview about the lines of arguments regarding performance and ethical screens, be it Islamic or Sustainability and what empiricial findings have been published.

It is claimed by critics that the reduction of the universe through ethical screens shall reduce the performance, likewise corporate social responsiblity comes against a cost. Similar counterarguments have been raised regarding Islamic screening criteria.

Bank Sarasin published a study doing own research with partners and reviewing published empirical analyses in the literature. It shows that there is no negative impact on performance. My review of empirical analyses in regard to Islamic finance concluded the same and all publications let conclude that ethical screens add value by way of risk management. An example is the debt limitation of the Sharia tolerance criteria.

Ethical screens may therefore improve the investment decision process and more research shall determine, which factors add value to the portfolio and therefore form part of a professional process.

Wachstumschancen für schweizer Finanzdienstleister in der Finanzkrise

Islamic Finance ist trotz oder gerade wegen der Finanzkrise der Wachstumsmarkt schlechtin. Schweizer Finanzdienstleister haben in den letzten zwei Jahren ihre Onshore-Präsenz in der arabischen Welt signifikant erhöht. Nun gilt es, bestehende Angebote intelligent um Schariah-konforme Produkte zu ergänzen und dadurch das stark gestiegene Bedürfnis vieler Muslime nach Islamischen Finanzprodukten zu adressieren. Schweizer Institute verfügen hier aufgrund ihrer guten Reputation in der Region über ausgezeichnete Voraussetzungen, mit "Swiss Islamic Banking" eine nennenswerte Position in diesem viel versprecenden Wachstumsmarkt einzunehmen.

19. März 2009 - Zürich, Metropol.