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Guidance Financial Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia-based Capital Guidance, wants to link the vast Islamic investment opportunities between the Middle East and Asia, Dr Hasnita Hashim, chief executive officer of Guidance Investments, said. If appropriately linked these two regions can deliver strong value for investors while making innovative investment opportunities and ethical funding bases on Sharia principles available across both the regions, she said. In the GCC and wider Middle East region, the company has plans to replicate the success of its US residential mortgage business targeted at primary mortgage customers and institutional investors seeking secondary market asset pools. The company is already involved in providing primary mortgages through Dar Al Tamleek in Saudi Arabia.

Dubai-headquartered offshore supply vessel company Stanford Marine Group (SMG) has secured a AED 1.2 billion ($326.7 million) Islamic syndicated structured finance facility arranged by Noor Bank. The transaction is one of the first fully Islamic-backed finance deals in the oilfield services sector. Other participating banks in the deal were: Barwa Bank, First Gulf Bank and Qatar Islamic Bank which acted as mandated lead arrangers, while Ajman Bank and United Arab Bank joined the deal as Lead Arrangers. Noor Bank PJSC also acted as Investment and Security Agent for the deal. The facility will be used to consolidate Stanford Marine Group’s existing conventional and Islamic facilities into a single tranche facility.

Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Madani came for the visit with the head of Russian Central bank Elvira Nabiullina, being accompanied by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. The trip has been organized within the framework of the visit of the Islamic Development bank (IDB) head to the VII International Economic summit of Russia and OIC countries – KazanSummit 2015. During the meeting, Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Madani told about the history of the IDB and the principles of its operation. He noted that today Islamic banking is represented even in countries, where there is no Islam, for instance, in China.

The rector of the Russian Islamic Institute (RII) Raffick Mukhametshin awarded the degree of honorary professor, a gown and a diploma to Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani, the President of the Islamic Development Bank. The ceremony was held in the framework of the Strategic Forum of the VII International economic summit of Russia and the OIC - KazanSummit 2015. Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani arrived to Kazan to participate in the VII International Economic Summit Of Russia and OIC countries and became a guest of Honor of the annual KazanSummit. Head of the Islamic Bank delivered a speech at the Strategic Forum of the summit.

Publicly traded Islamic bank Bank Asya’s owners have launched 100 cases against the seizure by regulators, with lawyer Süleyman Ta?ba? emphasizing that lawsuits can also be filed on behalf of the 18,000 shareholders corresponding to the B Group shares. Ta?ba? said that the number of cases may reach 110 with the main case file reaching 500 pages, pointing out that the B Group shareholders will also have the opportunity to file cases until the legal deadline expires in the next 35 days. The lawyer also said that a criminal complaint will be filed with the prosecutors against the bureaucrats working at the regulatory agencies who took part in the seizure of the bank and its management.

While rating agency has mixed views on the performance of the sukuk market this year, Maybank Islamic Bank Bhd says it remains mindful of the challenging economic backdrop. Its chief executive officer Muzaffar Hashim said the Islamic bond issuance activity, which saw its peak in 2012, is closely tracking the volatile external developments such as Greece debt default risk and US interest rates hike. RAM Rating said new global sukuk issuance is expected to be strong this year at around US$100 billion (RM371 billion) to US$120 billion (RM445 billion) while Standard & Poor’s warns of a slowdown in emerging markets as reduced confidence and low oil prices hit investor demand.

SWIFT, in collaboration with The Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) has announced the launch of a new rulebook for the purpose of promoting message standards in the Islamic banking and finance market. The Islamic finance rulebook has been developed in response to the growing significance of the Islamic banking and finance market. It aims to provide greater clarity around the usage of Shariah-compliant MT messages in order to expedite market harmonisation and increase Straight-through Processing (STP) to improve efficiency and reduce risks and cost. The SWIFT Islamic Finance rulebook was endorsed by Shariah Advisory Committee of AIBIM and adopted by AIBIM council. It will be available to the Message User Group (MUG) in July 2015.

The Republic of Turkey is seeking to raise US$1.5bn from the issuance of sukuk and yen-denominated bonds this year, according to a treasury official. The sovereign, rated Baa3 by Moody's and BBB- by Fitch, is to raise around USD400m-equivalent from the yen-denominated transaction and the rest from the sukuk. The sovereign is aiming to price the sukuk in the fourth quarter of the year, and the yen-denominated deal at some point in the second half of the year, according to the official.

Developing countries are losing around $100 billion a year in revenues because foreign investors are channelling profits through offshore zones to avoid tax, a study by U.N. think-tank UNCTAD said on Wednesday. The economic and trade body published the $100 billion figure in its annual World Investment Report, which analyses how much foreign direct investment (FDI) is flowing across borders in search of corporate takeovers and start-up ventures. It calculated the amount by applying an average tax rate of just over 20 percent to around $450 billion of corporate profits shifted out of developing economies every year.

In compliance with Central Bank of Bahrain's requirements, Ithmaar Bank publishes its financial results in line with international accountings standards issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). In May, Ithmaar Bank received notification from the Kuwait Stock Exchange requiring the Bank to publish its financial results in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS). Ithmaar Bank responded with a letter explaining that publishing two sets of financial results using different international accounting standards will create confusion among investors. Ithmaar Bank wrote to the Kuwait Stock Exchange requesting a meeting to review possible alternatives but has not yet received a response.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently issued a survey under "Islamic Finance: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy Options" depicting a host of challenges of the industry, as well as offering proposals to countries with Islamic banks. One major proposal of the study is to establish a Shari'ah Supervisory Board (SSB). Bahrain has recently announced founding a central Shari'ah body to supervise the products of Islamic Finance and set rules to boost governance in the sector. CEO of the Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Mazin Al-Nahedh welcomed the idea, saying such central supervisory body is likely to overcome the differences over financing products of Islamic banking, as it will set the rules to be adopted, Al-Nahedh told KUNA.

Encouraged by years of central bank easing, investors are ploughing too much cash into unproductive and increasingly speculative investments while shunning businesses building economic growth, the OECD warned on Wednesday. In its first Business and Finance Outlook, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development highlighted a growing divergence between investors rushing into ever riskier assets while companies remain too risk-averse to make investments. It urged regulators to keep a close eye on investors as they piled into leveraged hedge funds and private equity and poured cash into illiquid assets like high-yield corporate bonds.

Saudi Arabian Airlines will take delivery of 50 aircraft from Airbus in the largest aviation deal to be secured via Islamic financing. Airbus announced the deal at the Paris Airshow earlier this month, which includes 30 A320neo planes and 20 A330-300 Regional aircraft worth around $8.2 billion based on list prices. Dubai-based International Airfinance Corporation (IAFC), an Airbus-backed sharia-compliant aircraft leasing fund, will buy the aircraft and lease them to Saudi Arabian Airlines, it said in a statement. IAFC, which exclusively finances Airbus aircraft for clients in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, was launched in June last year with seed capital from Airbus and the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank. The fund appointed Dubai-based Palma Capital and Quantum Investment Bank as arrangers to complete the deal, which consists of both equity and debt financing.

Maxis Bhd has issued the first series of its sukuk murabahah of RM840mil in nominal value pursuant to its unrated sukuk murabahah programme. The tenure is for 10 years from the issue date. The country’s largest mobile phone operator plans to raise as much as RM5bil from a 30-year sukuk for its capital expenditure (capex) and debt refinancing. The company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday that the unrated sukuk murabahah programme would be available 30 years from the date of the first issuance, which should be made within two years of approval. The issue price as well as coupon rate and yield to maturity of the Islamic bond will also be fixed prior to each issuance.

Kuveyt Türk will sell sukuk to qualified investors as well as to people through public offerings as part of the TL 1 billion ($373.65 million) issuance ceiling program taken from the Capital Markets Board in 2015. Therefore, the bank plans to issue TL 200 million of sukuk, which is due for 189 days after collecting demands on June 24, June 25 and June 26. Additionally, it aims to issue TL 800 million of sukuk in total by the end of 2015 to increase its resource diversity. Investors' interest in the bank's issuances valued at TL 1 billion from 2014 to 2015 and public offerings valued at TL 150 million in 2013 showed possible growth in the upcoming issuances, and this is why the bank has increased its aims.

Quantum Investment Bank Limited and Palma Capital Limited, both based in the Dubai International Financial Centre have been retained as the exclusive placement agents for the launch of a Shari’ah compliant aircraft leasing fund (ALIF Fund) to be managed by the International Airfinance Corporation (IAFC) with Airbus and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) as anchor investors and strategic partners. With a targeted size of $5 billion from a combination of equity and debt, the fund will focus exclusively on Airbus aircraft. The objective of the Fund is to achieve a risk adjusted medium to long-term capital appreciation while generating a quarterly cash dividend to investors.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB)’s Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR)’s at ‘AAA’ with a Stable Outlook. The Short-term IDR has been affirmed at F1+. The trust certificates issued by IDB Trust Services Ltd and guaranteed by IsDB have also been affirmed at ‘AAA’. The ratings reflect its strong capitalisation, high liquidity and low concentration risk compared with other regional multilateral development banks (MDBs). Even though some limits, such as leverage, have been relaxed, the risk framework remains stringent, and IsDB is progressively aligning it with that of other highly rated MDBs, for example through its liquidity policy. However, compared with other ‘AAA’-rated MDBs, provisioning is fairly low given the bank’s exposure to countries experiencing deep political troubles.

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) has appointed Hassan Jarrar as its new chief executive, with effect from July 1. Jarrar, who is currently the chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank Bahrain, will take over the reins from Mohammed Ahmed Janahi who has been Bahrain Islamic Bank’s acting CEO since September 1 last year. Janahi will become the deputy chief executive after Jarrar takes over. The new chief executive said he was confident that Bahrain Islamic Bank would assume an active role in Islamic banking field through perfecting its systems and services and the development and refining of products to enhance its role and status in the local and regional markets.

The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has issued the Exposure Draft of its joint paper with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). The ‘Issues in Regulation and Supervision of Microtakaful (Islamic Microinsurance)’ paper has been issued for public consultation until August 6, a statement said. It has invited comments from regulatory and supervisory authorities, international organisations, market players, academics and other interested parties, it said. The main objective of the Joint Paper is to highlight and identify regulatory issues prevailing in the Microtakaful sector and outline the role this sector can play in enhancing financial inclusion.

Dubai-based Islamic mortgage lender Amlak Finance has said it is in talks with Emaar Properties to launch a partnership to develop land in “distinctive locations”. Amlak's shares soared 15 percent, the maximum allowed in a day on the Dubai Financial Market, after the company announced the plans. Amlak chief commercial officer Adnan Al Awadhi told Al Khaleej newspaper that it is also in talks with the emirate’s Land Department to revive stalled projects. Last month, Amlak recorded a 77 percent plunge in first-quarter profit because of amortisation charges. Amlak reported that net profit fell to AED3.7 million ($1.01 million) from AED16 million in the same period last year.