IslamicFinance.de

Ernst & Young's experts stated at the International Takaful Summit 2011 in London that Takaful is only one per cent of total global insurance market but Muslims are 20 per cent of the world's population.
Abid Shakeel is the one that spoke at on 'Takaful - the default option for Muslim countries' at the summit. He underlined the fact that the legislation in the Islamic countries that makes Takaful products the preferred choice among insurance products can place the industry on a completely different level. He added the fact that growth in the GCC is primarily driven by compulsory insurance rather than only voluntary policies.

Central Bank of Oman (CBO) arranged a seminar on Islamic banking in collaboration with Ernst & Young, Bahrain.
Speakers at the seminar were worried that the growth prospects for the banking sector would increase by 20% over the next decade, especially since the Islamic banking system was less affected by the recent global financial crisis compared to conventional banks.
The seminar was attended by a large number of chief executives and officials of commercial banks operating in the Sultanate.

Four out of seven tenders submitted to the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) came through stage one of the competition to land a consultancy contract on the provision of Islamic banking and financial services.
Among the finalists are: Ekvita & Islamic Finance Advisory Assurance Services, Ernst & Young with Baker McKenzie, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and consortium consisting of Salans, Pinsent Masons and KPMG.

The statement of Yves Mersch, governor of the Banque Centrale de Luxembourg, revealed the fact that the Luxembourg government is in no hurry to issue a sukuk because there are currently no serious reasons for doing so.
The government doesn't need to borrow at this point, so no sukuk will be sold.
But Ernst & Young, Theisen Law and Lux Global Trust Services organized summit on "Islamic Finance in Luxembourg" and if he had participated, he may have a had different oppinion.

In a study made by Ernst & Young on Islamic insurance it is underlined that the move of Bermuda’s new emphasis on attracting this business is a smart one.
The conclusions of a Bermuda Finance Ministry feasibility study were that there are no major legislative or regulatory impediments to introducing Islamic financial product offerings in Bermuda.

It is thought that islamic insurance contributions worldwide will rise by 31% this year. In 2010 the growth was 33%.
Ashar Nazim, executive director and Islamic Financial Services Leader at Ernst & Young, has the strong oppinion that key takaful markets are leading to a positive outlook for the sector as a whole because of its low insurance penetration rates and comparatively high rates of economic growth.

Islamic financial institutions are expected to continue to show resilience in the face of a challenging economic scenario. This is despite the fact that growth levels of the Islamic finance industry, at more than 20 per cent per annum for the past several years, came under tremendous pressure in 2010.
Scarcity of data and under-investment in analytical tools means that Islamic banks' focus remains limited to a handful of asset classes while their operating costs are, in many cases, higher than their conventional peers. Future opportunities may no longer come from traditional captive clientele. Instead, Islamic financial institutions urgently need to upgrade their business models to tap mainstream segments.

Shariah-compliant funds manager, Crescent Funds Management, has been granted an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).
Tax adviser and auditor was appointed Ernst & Young and custodian, JP Morgan.

Allen & Overy (A&O) has bolstered its Paris arm with the hire of a tax team from CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre.
Jean-Yves Charriau joined A&O as a partner last week (1 October) from Bureau Francis Lefebvre, where he was also a partner, with a team including counsel Sophie Maurel and associate David Sorel.
Charriau, who specialises in advising real estate companies and foreign funds on their real estate investment transactions, becomes the third partner in the firm's Paris tax practice. He was previously at Bureau Francis Lefebvre for seven years prior to which he spent a decade at Ernst & Young.

“The Islamic fund industry needs to evaluate new strategies to restimulate growth. Islamic fund assets remained flat in 2009 at $52 billion, whereas the potential wealth pool grew by 20 percent, now estimated at $480 billion,” concludes the Islamic Funds & Investments Report (IFIR) 2010.
The other key messages from the IFIR similarly are stark — the sector needs to achieve scale to ensure its long-term sustainability; the priority over the next two years is to rebuild investor trust through staying close to the investor base and to have transparency in cost and revenue structures.
The IFIR 2010 may serve a purpose to those interested in the Islamic funds industry. But it could have been much more useful if it had clarity in structure; concentration on the 3 major markets by far; in-depth analysis not only of the performances but also of the shortcomings — both regulatory, legal, management, investor knowledge, asset allocation etc; and above all a much more rigorous empirical approach in primary data collection which would have given the analysts at Ernst & Young to draw much more authoritative conclusions about the global Islamic fund and investment industry.

Ernst & Young prepared a statement in response to a query by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany regarding he tax assessment of selected Islamic finance contractual models. The attached report covers the main findings including an English summary.

Ernst & Young released a report saying that the takaful market may reach USD 7.7 bn contributions by 2012, compared to USD 2.5 bn in 2006 and USD 3.4 bn in 2007.

The Hedge Fund Review reported on 24 February that the Coffee trading advisor Eiger Trading Advisors has targeted a March launch for four coffee related funds. The funds aim to give investors exposure to the coffee markets through the choice of a hedge fund, a Shariah-compliant fund and two tracker funds. The funds will be domiciled in the Cayman Islands and will launch with approximately $150 million collectively.

The Shariah-compliant Eiger Green Coffee Fund will provide Islamic investors with access to coffee as an asset class. It aims for returns of around 12% a year. The company decided to launch the funds based on its understanding of the coffee industry and the growers. This, the company said, will enable it to exploit trades and generate attractive risk adjusted returns for investors. The funds will target mainly Middle Eastern investors but will not limit itself to particular investors.

The share class will be in dollars. Newedge will act as prime broker for the Coffee Alpha Fund and BNP Paribas will be the prime broker for the Green Coffee Fund. All three funds have a 2% management fee with a 20% performance fee with a high watermark.

David Masters reported on 15 April about the new Ernst & Young Report in the Insurance Daily, which says that the GCC countries contribute USD 1 bn to the USD 2 bn global Takaful market, which is supposedly growing at 20 %. Worldwide there are 133 Takaful operators. 59 of these operate within the GCC countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Ernst & Young’s head of Islamic finance is Sameer Abdi.

Source: http://www.insurancedaily.co.uk/2008/04/15/takaful-market-booming-in-gcc/

Full study at E&Y:

http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/UK/_Islamic_Financial_Services