IslamicFinance.de

As Russia's 20 million Muslims observe Ramadan, the country's banks are beginning to wake up to the growing opportunities offered by Islamic banking. Last summer VTB Capital opened an office in Dubai. The bank also plans to launch other Islamic projects, investing in Russian property together with the Sultan of Oman's State General Reserve Fund. However, there are still major obstacles to developing Islamic finance, including a lack of banking legislation that meets Islamic rules.

The possibility of the first sovereign or corporate sukuk origination out of France took a step nearer when the French government announced that it had passed new instructions to facilitate the introduction of sukuk, Ijara, Murabaha and Istisna products in France.

It is claimed that France now has a tax neutrality regime in place for facilitating Islamic financial products including Islamic bonds and certificates; cost-plus-financing; leasing and construction industry forward financing.

French banks such as Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, UBAF, Calyon (Banque Credit Agricole) have long been involved in global Islamic finance. BNP Paribas for instance recently listed its first Islamic exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Asia on Bursa Malaysia. Some two years ago it had advised the Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, to launch its first Islamic ETF, MyETF i. The new measures are not limited to a particular transaction but form a basis for a framework for Murabaha, Istisna, Ijara and sukuk transactions which satisfy both French law and Shariah principles.

Qatar Islamic Bank's subsidiary European Finance House (EFH) has recently rebranded as QIB UK in order to reinforce its positioning within QIB's expanding global network.The change was instituted at the beginning of August and acts to unify the brand in order to keep consistency across local and international markets. The primary motivation behind the rebranding is to further bring EFH under the umbrella of QIB's well established identity as one of the regions foremost Islamic banking institutions, and the world's 4th largest Islamic bank in terms of assets. The change in name acts to enhance QIB UK's profile within the Islamic finance industry. The institution's aim is to achieve outstanding outcomes and solutions for its diverse clientele by implementing the expertise of its international team in combination with proven strategies and techniques.

The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is gearing up for its latest sukuk offering under its Medium Term Note (MTN) or Trust Certificate Issuance Program. The IDB, according to Mohamed Tariq, senior adviser to the President Ahmad Mohamed Ali, was poised to go to the international financial markets in September this year. In Kuala Lumpur last week, Abdul Aziz Al-Hinai, vice president, finance, IDB, confirmed that the IDB plans to go to the market in the last quarter of 2010. Another international rating agency, Moody's Investors Service, last month had already reaffirmed for a fifth consecutive year the Islamic Development Bank's Aaa long term and P-1 short term foreign currency issuer rating with a stable outlook. Moody's stated that the IDB's rating is strongly supported by the commitment of its member countries, and highlighted that the capital base of the bank is strong, its operational assets continue to perform well, it has a high level of liquidity and very low level of debt. Moody's concluded that the bank's risk profile is likely to remain healthy over the medium term.

Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS is planning a second sale of Shariah-compliant debt for 2012. Kuveyt Turk, the Istanbul-based bank owned by Kuwait Finance House KSC, may sell more than $100 million of five-year sukuk. Islamic bond offerings may accelerate in the next 18 months, led by countries new to the market, Mohamed Damak, a Paris-based credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s. Policies to promote assets that follow Islamic law are spreading to Europe from Asia.

In 2010 Qatar Islamic Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Banque Populaire Caisse d'Epargne, France's second largest banking group, in order to gain access to the French retail banking and small medium-size business markets. Recently, Paris Europlace signed an agreement with AAOIFI paving the way for greater cooperation to drive the development of Islamic finance in France.

PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a full day event about Takaful in Germany language. Below more details:

PwC Talk
Sharia-konforme Lebensversicherungsprodukte
16. September 2010, Köln
20. September 2010, München

Während Sharia-konforme Bankprodukte auf Veranstaltungen bereits recht eingehend diskutiert wurden, ist das Thema Sharia-konformer Lebensversicherungsprodukte bisher kaum Gegenstand eines fachlichen Forums gewesen. Die Veranstaltung möchte daher den Versuch unternehmen, diesem weißen Fleck auf der deutschen Landkarte der Produktentwicklung eine erste Topographie zu geben. Der wachsende Anteil der muslimischen Bevölkerung in Deutschland und Europa ist hierzu hinreichender Anlass.

Zielgruppe

Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter von Versicherungsunternehmen aus den
Bereichen Kapitalanlage und Steuern/Recht sowie Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter von Kreditinstituten,
Investmentbanken oder Asset-Management-Gesellschaften für die Bereiche Versicherungen, Steuern/Recht und Investment/ Kapitalanlage.

In the current issues the following questions are discussed:

How should we recognize excellence in the Islamic finance industry?
How do we identify greatness – of bankers and financiers, of lawyers, of consultants, of scholars?
How do we discourage a culture of „Islamic Awards for Cash??
How do we develop an „Islamic? methodology for rewarding achievement?