IslamicFinance.de

As salamu Alaikum,
Next saturday, May 13, 2023, at 15.00 I present as guest of Muslim Student Association in Zurich (@msazurich) on the 1st chapter of my book and then go into the banking crisis and money creation. The talk is in English.

Physical
???? Samstag, 13. Mai 2023
? 15:00 - 17:00
???? Building KAB, floor G, room 01
????? Kantonsschulstrasse 3, 8001 Zürich

Physical attendance - registration linked at @msazurich and in my link tree in Insta profile. (just confirm lengthy privacy in German).
Talk online accessible without registration: Click on Linktr.ee/islamgeldwohlstand - presentation on bigbluebutton/senfcall similar to zoom - no installation required or instagram @islamgeldwohlstand

My German book "Islam, Geld und Wohlstand - Ein Handbuch über Finanzen und Vorsorge" can be obtained:
Instagram:
DE: @islambooks24
CH: @IslamShop.ch
or any other bookstore or online dealer in German speaking countries - if you are publisher interested for your country, please contact me.

Dear All,

as salamu alaikum,

as part of my book project I developed a simple tool for Islamic stock screening. What does it do?

- data pull from Google Finance and MarketWatch
- Calculating cash and debt compliance criteria versus 220days average market cap
- Zakat calculation per share for the zakatable asset approach, if held for investment

***Telegram Group for discussion on Islamic stock screening:
https://t.me/islamicstockscreening

***Live Google Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VJYojBUrftJkAZRTcdbmN4TAsvaC1eas...

***Resources:
https://github.com/IslamicWealthManagement/Googlesheet

The tool is under a GLP-3.0 License and be used and amended privately with no charge. Users are encouraged to verify and improve the tool for mutual sharing. No warranties given. Feedback directly or via Telegram group highly welcomed. Is your market avalaible, or do you desire a screening for your market?

Other Screening tools are:

Idealratings: https://www.idealratings.com/
Halal Investors: https://halalinvestors.com/
Islamicly: https://www.islamicly.com/
Zoya Finance: https://zoya.finance/

Sustainable Development Key Performance Indicators (SD-KPIs) are three particularly material environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators for the expected business development of 68 different sectors.

The copyrighted SD-KPI Standard 2016-2021 was published by SD-M® on behalf of the the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) and with support of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). A Japanese, Chinese and Arabic translation is also available:

https://www.sd-kpi.com/files/SD-KPI_Standard_2016-2021_Arabic.pdf

According to the BaFin Guidance Notice on Dealing with Sustainability Risks, ESG risks should be strategically considered, e.g. by means of SD-KPI Standard 2016-2021. The Guidelines (German) to the Sustainability Code of the German Council for Sustainable Development recommend the SD-KPI Standards for materiality analysis.

The Big Six® are the six most important challenges for sustainable development in 21st century:

climate change
freshwater scarcity and pollution
deforestation and desertification
absolute poverty
loss of biodiversity
population growth and migration

The American Brennan Investment Group established a joint venture equity partnership with Saudi Arabia-based investment firm Arbah Capital to acquire 557,000 square feet of light industrial and flex space in Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. The portfolio includes a mix of tenants in the automotive, manufacturing and the telecommunications industries. Global real estate services firm JLL Capital Markets connected Brennan and Arbah, as well as helped the newly formed joint venture equity partnership secure $22.9 million in debt financing via a 5-year floating-rate loan with Wintrust Bank.

Banking has fueled racial inequity and social harm in many ways and for a long time. Before the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, banks regularly contributed to racial segregation and wealth inequality in the US by refusing to make loans to Black Americans or in neighborhoods that were predominantly Black. In the 2000s, Black and Latin Americans who were able to purchase homes and gain some wealth were disproportionately targeted for high-cost predatory loans. When the crash came, the nation’s already enormous racial wealth gap grew even larger. Banks continue to fund fossil fuel firms, prisons, detention centers, and payday lenders. Most organizations and individuals are unknowingly funding these activities with their deposits. The Beneficial State Foundation established the Equitable Bank Standards that clearly define both mission-aligned and harmful practices of banks. With the nonprofit sector accounting for over $3 trillion in assets, aligning money with values could make a huge difference.

The Walton Group's Exit-Focused Land investment has been endorsed by the Amanie Shariah Supervisory Board as a Shariah-compliant investment product. Walton’s exit-focused pre-development land investment provides an innovative solution to U.S. public homebuilders as they move to streamline and optimize their land inventory pipelines. Walton is a privately owned, leading global real estate investment, land asset management and administration company that has focused on strategically located land in major growth corridors for 40-plus years. The company manages and administers US$3.39 billion of real estate assets in North America. Walton has more than 104,000 acres of land under ownership, management and administration in the United States and Canada.

The Western economies have relied on debt has got to stop says former Deputy Governor at the Bank of Canada. Governments and central banks have got to start following more symmetrical monetary and fiscal policies and that the world needs to look at debt reduction options and “needs a wholesale embrace of Islamic finance.”

New York-based Wahed Invest has secured financing from oil giant Saudi Aramco to expand into the Middle East and make Riyadh its regional hub. The Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures extended the funding to the online Islamic investment platform as part of a $25 million funding round. The three-year-old Wahed Invest, which has secured a license to operate in Saudi Arabia, aims to get regulatory approval in 20 more countries. It currently has licenses to operate in nine countries. The company's Islamic Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) holds investments in Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Intel Corp. Wahed Invest is also contemplating listing its Islamic ETF on the Saudi stock exchange. Its ETF was listed on the Nasdaq last year.

Sharif El-Gamal put together one of the most unusual financing packages when he secured a sharia-compliant construction loan four years ago for his Tribeca condo tower. El-Gamal is now claiming that the Malaysian bank that made the loan has violated the sharia terms. El-Gamal argues Maybank violated the terms of their agreement by refusing to release construction funds to complete the project at 45 Park Place. He is seeking damages equal to the projected sellout of the development about $245 million. Maybank claims El-Gamal defaulted on his loan when he failed to repay the $108 million balance when it came due in April.

Elon Musk ist berechtigt, eine etwa 765 Millionen US-Dollar hohe Vergütung zu beziehen, weil der Börsenkurs von Tesla eine vorher vereinbare Zielmarke über längere Zeit gehalten hat. Auch Gewinn und Umsatz haben die vereinbarten Zielmarken erreicht. Musk erhält kein Gehalt, sondern nur Optionen, die aufgrund von vorher definierten Zielen gezogen werden können. Diese beziehen sich auf das Umsatz- und Gewinnwachstum. Die Zielvereinbarung zwischen Tesla und Elon Musk ist so ambitioniert, dass es als nahezu unmöglich gilt, dass Musk sie vollständig erfüllen kann. Tesla muss Musk allerdings den Mindestlohn von rund 37.000 US-Dollar jährlich zahlen. Die Schecks soll Musk angeblich jedoch nicht einlösen.

Gulf Islamic Investments (GII) has announced the acquisition of 140 & 150 Grand Street Plaza, an office building in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, USA on behalf of its investors. Located just 30 minutes away from Manhattan, the Class A office building seats within the urban center of White Plains. The Property is strategically located within one block of the Federal, Supreme, District and County courthouses making it the preferred destination for government-affiliated and law-related tenants. GII is a UAE-based financial services company regulated by the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA). GII was advised by a cross border Orrick team led by Düsseldorf-based M&A and private equity partner Oliver Duys.

Mexico has newly issued a $485 million World Bank facilitated catastrophe bond, the IBRD / FONDEN 2020 transaction and sees it as an important part of the country’s social protection strategy. The new cat bond will provide the country with a four-year source of parametric earthquake and hurricane insurance protection, replacing the maturing coverage of the $260 million 2018 issuance IBRD CAR 118-119. The Government highlighted that Mexico is particularly exposed to natural disaster risks, with some 40% of the national territory, and about a third of its population, exposed to hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The transaction was issued in four tranches, two exposed to different levels of earthquake risks and one each to Atlantic and Pacific hurricane risks.

ShariaPortfolio has introduced portfolio management services in Canada. The firm recently launched offices in Vancouver as well as Toronto. Plans are on to expand the employee strength of ShariaPortfolio Canada in additional provinces eventually. ShariaPortfolio imbibes halal ethical standards in its investment selection, taking a long-term perspective to wealth management. The firm has been operating in the US since 2003. It oversees $115m in assets for clients across 26 states. Besides, it delivers institutional level services to support collaborations with traditional financial services providers looking to incorporate Islamic portfolio management.

Global Growth Assets Inc. has Canada’s only Shariah compliant equity mutual fund, the Global Iman Fund, which boasts a solid 10-year track record showing consistent growth. Fundata has awarded the fund its coveted FundGrade “A” rating, which places the Global Iman Fund in the top 10% of all global equity funds in Canada in risk-adjusted performance. Global Iman Fund is actively managed by the Swiss multinational financial services company UBS. The fund has been endorsed by a Fatwa from the Islamic Finance Advisory Board as being Shariah compliant. Audits by the Advisory Board find that the Fund invests in companies according to its objectives of Shariah compliance.

In this podcast Sam Brunson, professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, talks about accommodating religious practice with United States Tax Law. In his book, 'God and the IRS', he lays out a three-question framework when considering tax exceptions based on religious practice. The first is: Does an individual’s religion cause them to act in a tax disadvantaged way. The second is: If it does, what kind of accommodation would put them in a similar after-tax position as someone without the religious constraints. And third, it asks whether there’s an extrinsic reason not to grant the accommodation. The book tries to provide a basis for deciding when an accommodation makes sense and when an accommodation doesn’t make sense.

Agents of Impact aligned with Catholic, Jewish and Muslim institutions found common ground in using capital to usher in a fairer economy. Last month, the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative announced a half-dozen institutions with $40 billion in assets have signed a “Catholic impact Investing pledge.” The Catholic impact pledgers are among a number of Catholic institutions carving out portions of their portfolio for direct, private impact investing strategies. Billion-dollar Catholic Relief Services allocates capital to direct investing, blended finance, technical services and capacity building. Other faith institutions are seeing impact investing as a way to complement their philanthropy. A faith-based organization that supports a nonprofit that helps poor farmers in India can complement that work by also investing in a business that buys from those farmers.

UTM assistant professor Dr. Ruba Kana’an discusses the changing field and her journey to academia. She has recently joined the UTM faculty as an assistant professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in the Department of Visual Studies. Kana’an originally studied architectural engineering at the University of Jordan but was always interested in archeology. Kana’an’s research aims to learn more about Islamic art by examining the combination of Islamic art, Islamic history, and Islamic law. When asked about contemporary Islamic art, Kana’an emphasizes that the field is young. She says that art is an opportunity to see how Muslims dealt with issues and came up with different solutions to express their diversity.

Many Muslims’ reliance on community offers opportunities including halal robo-advice.