IslamicFinance.de

Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin, Deputy Finance Minister, stated that several strategies must be taken in order to strengthen Malaysia's position as an international Islamic financial centre. He added that Islamic scholars should spread their horizon and not limit themselves to one field of knowledge.
His oppinion is that the establishment of research institutions that promotes the development of Syariah principles was still having issues in the move to obtain the desired objectives.

It seems that because of the economic uncertainty and the availability of Islamic finance, Middle Eastern real estate investors are begining to look East to markets such as Malaysia.
Middle Eastern investment into Malaysian real estate projects has boosted to 11.4% in the third quarter of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.
The fact that Malaysia has been offering Shariah compliant financial services for over 25 years makes it very attractive to buyers from the Middle East.

The Second Annual Islamic Finance Forum will gather investors, borrowers and regulators in the same place to accomplish a better understanding of existing instruments of Islamic Finance and to find answers to problems encountered frequently in the course of doing business.
The forum delegates is amde of representatives from the Embassies of UAE, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

It seems that Khazanah Nasional Bhd. hired BOC International, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Royal Bank for a sale of the world's first yuan-denominated Islamic bonds in Hong Kong.
The offering will help Malaysia maintain its strengt and position as the world's biggest launcher of sukuk.

The 2nd Quarter 2011 issue of the Malaysian ICM quarterly bulletin published by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) is now available online at:
http://www.sc.com.my/eng/html/icm/11_2Q_msianicm.pdf

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) stated that Turkey’s participation (Islamic banks) “could continue their recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image,”. This puts ground to an Islamic finance market which is as old as the one in Malaysia and others in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Turkiye Finans, Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (KTPB) and Albaraka Turk Participation Bank (ATPB) have got majority GCC ownership interests. Asya Participation Bank (APB) has arranged a joint venture with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector funding arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), called Tamweel Africa which invests in financial institutions, leasing entities and extends lines of credit to finance trade in sub-Saharan Africa.

Banks from Japan to Bahrain are aiming to open offices in Malaysia to take advantage of the growth in Islamic finance assets in the world’s biggest sukuk market.
Mizuho Financial Group Inc has applied for a licence to offer foreign-currency Syariah-compliant services in the country. An aproximatly equal licence was given to Bahrain’s Elaf Bank B.S.C. in June.

Dr Nabeel Al-Mannae is the new Independent Non-Executive Chairman and Director of Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Berhad (KFH Malaysia).
Dr Nabeel has a PhD in Economics from the University of Miami, Florida, Masters of Arts (Economics) from Florida International University and a Degree in Commerce (Economics) from the Kuwait University.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. applied for an Islamic banking permit in Malaysia.
The bank is beginning the business with 61 bankers in Kuala Lumpur and wants to hire more as the operation expands. The statement came from Keizo Ohashi, chairman of the subsidiary.
Malaysia is giving out nine financial services licenses to overseas companies as it tries to boost banking industry competition amid record economic gains.

Indonesia is expected to to have a natural fit with Islamic banking, finance and insurance, especially because of the mobilization of domestic savings through Islamic banking.
But it seems that the latest statistics on the sector demonstrate that Indonesia has a long way to go in emulating the success of its neighbor, Malaysia.
For Indonesia, the global sukuk market in particular evolved into an alternative source of funding for infrastructure and other investments. The latest incursion of the Indonesian Ministry of Finance into the Islamic capital market is planned for August 2011 when the government is due to launch 1 trillion rupiah of debut Islamic treasury bills with a six-month tenor.

Sarawak's Senari Synergy has launched an RM380m ($126m) 20-year Sukuk on August 2. Danajamin Nasional, a financial guarantee insurer owned by Malaysia's Ministry of Finance, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the country's commercial banks was the one that subscribed and underwrote it.

At the recent International Takaful Summit 2011 the experts from Takaful stated that they expect to reach $12 billion by the end of this year.
Ernst & Young think that emerging markets will be the key actors leading Takaful’s growth.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia are currently the top three Takaful markets. They are followed by c, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Pakistan.

Central bankers from Malaysia, Indonesia have met in Jakarta on 18 July 2011 and discussed the need to improve cooperation in order to boost the development of Islamic finance in the two countries.
Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz of Bank Negara Malaysia and Governor Darmin Nasution of Bank Indonesia agreed on the need for joint initiatives to create an ‘enabling environment’.

Clifford Chance advises on largest dual-tranche global sovereign US dollar sukuk
International law firm Clifford Chance has given advice to CIMB, Citi, HSBC and Maybank as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners on the US$2 billion dual-tranche sukukal- wakala transaction for the Government of Malaysia.
The sukuk certificates have been assigned a rating of A- by Standard and Poor’s and A3 by Moody’s.

In order to help mobilize funds for businesses around the world, Malaysia will launch a license for an Islamic “mega bank” in the third quarter of this year. The statement came from the country’s central bank governor.
It seems that in the same period, the Southeast Asian nation is also going to start a cross-border clearance platform for sukuk.

A study made by AM Best shows that takaful will continue to be among the fastest growing sectors in the Gulf and Malaysia, with life insurance being the one who provides the greatest opportunity for profitability.
Although life insurance or family takaful offered higher margins and stability, it made up less than 25 % of the contributions received. General takaful, however, has seen varied profitability in the Gulf.

DinarStandard™ publicized a listing of 50 Leading Business Schools of the OIC member countries. The listing reveales how OIC based Business Schools are giving leading regional employers access to top talent from within their own neighborhoods with unique expertise in Islamic finance, social entrepreneurship and innovation management.
Some of the insights presented in the listing are:
- Accreditation: Eight B-Schools from the list are AACSB accredited (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.) AACSB is generally regarded as the standard for MBA programs (all US top 20 MBA programs have AACSB accreditation.)
- Geographic breakdown: B-Schools from 16 countries are represented on the list. Malaysia has the highest representation with 8 B-Schools on the list. This is followed by 6 each from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
- Most of the programs are English language based and 47 of the 50 on the list offer full-time MBA program.

Tenaga Nasional is going to sell as much as 5 billion ringgit in 20-year Islamic bonds.
The bonds will be formed according to the ijara or Islamic leasing contract.

Islamic finance has grown about 14% over the past 15 years.
Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin estimates the Islamic finance industry at about US$1 trillion. It seems that the Islamic finance is penetrating new markets such as in Europe and Africa.
Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin underlined the fact that guidelines to govern the issuance and offering of a wide range of capital market products and services had been put in place to ensure orderly development of Islamic capital market, and these guidelines were regularly reviewed to ensure their relevance and effectiveness

It seems that the Islamic finance industry is curious in tapping Middle Eastern oil money to help fund Thai infrastructure projects, which could help it win a foothold in a market with only a small Muslim population.
During this week Malaysia issued a $2 billion sukuk, almost 30 % of which was consumed by Middle Eastern investors.
Infrastructure investment is expected to have a great start in Thailand as well as other Southeast Asian countries.