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Moody's Investors Service has today upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2 the insurance financial strength rating (IFSR) of the Qatar Islamic Insurance Company ("QIIC"). The rating carries a stable outlook. The rating upgrade for QIIC reflects (i) the company's improved and extremely strong capitalisation in relation to insurance risk; and (ii) its sustained strong profitability both in terms of underwriting profit and of bottom line. Nonetheless, Moody's added that QIIC maintains a significant level of investment risk, as QIIC invests predominantly in Qatari equity and property markets, translating to a high risk assets ratio. Furthermore, QIIC's insurance risk remains relatively concentrated to Qatar. The outlook is stable reflecting the expectation that the improvements in QIIC's capitalization will be maintained.

Versant assuranciel de la finance islamique, le Takaful est à l’origine une technique d’assurance compatible avec les principes de la Charia. Prônant une approche religieuse, ces opérateurs proposent des solutions assurantielles à des besoins de gestion de risques et répondent aux mêmes exigences de solvabilité que toutes les compagnies d’assurance. La France est le pays d’Europe qui compte le plus grand nombre de musulmans sur son territoire. La demande en assurance de ces populations ne cesse de croître. Il y a désormais urgence à créer une offre résolument mutualiste dont l’ensemble des investissements à l’actif seraient participatifs et socialement responsables.

BIMB Holdings Bhd’s share price on Bursa Malaysia reacted well following announcement that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd aimed to increase the fund of two products under its Term Investment Account over the next six months. As at 10.26am today, the counter was four sen better at RM4.05 with 4,900 shares changing hands. Bank Islam is aiming for a RM2 billion fund for Waheed Investment Account (WIA Wakalah) and Special Investment Account (Mudarabah). Another account, the Al-Awfar Account, was also launched today. The bank also planned to maintain a RM2 billion fund size under its Transactional Investment Account.

Shareholders of Qatar's Barwa Bank approved plans for a $2 billion senior unsecured sukuk programme that could be issued in various currencies, the lender said in a statement on Tuesday. The Islamic bank did not specify a timeframe or size for a potential debut deal. It also received approval to pay a cash dividend of 10 percent to shareholders, the statement said.

Bank Negara Malaysia said it would finalise operating standards for all major Islamic finance contracts by the end of this year, creating the first comprehensive set of practical guidance for the industry.The set of 11 standards will complement existing shariah guidelines issued by Bank Negara, as the regulator aims to address inconsistencies in the use of Islamic contracts. The regulator has sought wide industry feedback and is expected to update the new standards regularly to keep up with changing market practices. Malaysia's current shariah standards are enforceable and have been in place for years, but they are technical rather than practical and still open to interpretation.

SEDCO Holding Group, a Shariah-compliant private wealth management organization, acquired 40% in AlShiaka, the Saudi men’s outfitters specialized in designing and making men’s thobes. Anees Moumina, CEO of SEDCO Holding Group, and Walid Al Andijani, AlShiaka’s CEO, sealed the deal in Jeddah at one of AlShiaka’s outlets on June 1st 2015. The partnership will utilize SEDCO Holding’s capital and expertise in corporate governance to drive the strategic growth of the company. This investment is in line with SEDCO Holding’s strategic approach to invest in viable new ventures in growth sectors in the region. AlShiaka now has 32 showrooms for retail purchasing and this has positioned the company’s market share within the top three among its competitors.

Turkey’s government said it plans to find a buyer for Bank Asya after completing the nationalization of the Islamic lender with the seizure of its shares on Friday. The bank may now be sold whole or in parts, according to an announcement in the Official Gazette on Saturday, which didn’t give more detail on the potential sale. Twelve months ago Goldman Sachs Inc. was hired to manage a sale. The New York bank set up exclusive talks with Qatar Islamic Bank SAQ., only for these to fall apart after Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said that the government preferred that the Istanbul-based lender be acquired by a Turkish state bank. The regulator has wide discretionary powers after a takeover, including to partially or completely transfer the bank’s assets to another bank, or sell to a third person.

Tirad Al Mahmoud, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, has urged the Central Bank to broaden its provision of short-term liquidity to Sharia-compliant lenders. The UAE should also offer longer-term funding facilities to Islamic banks so as to improve their business capability, he added. The Central Bank allows Islamic banks to park Sharia-compliant assets on its balance sheet in exchange for profit. This is only available on an overnight basis. The central banks of the UAE and Bahrain recently introduced a series of short-term treasury management tools to help Islamic lenders to manage their cash flows. Bahrain and the UAE are the only countries in the region whose central banks offer liquidity tools to Islamic lenders.

Islamic Reporting Initiative invites partners to create the first, mainstream reporting standard for Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility, based on Islamic Principles. Launched only last month, the Islamic Reporting Initiative is rapidly gaining support and momentum from across the Islamic world. The initiative aims to generate sustainable growth by building a framework for CSR built on Islamic principles, with the potential of reaching more than 50 Islamic countries worldwide. Together with partners in the Islamic world, the initiative was launched by Drs Daan Elffers, the Chairman of last year's CSR Summit in Saudi Arabia and a judge for the recent CSR Excellence Awards held in the UAE. For more information visit http://www.islamicreporting.org

CEO Dr. Adnan Chilwan, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) says that the Islamic finance sphere demonstrated a greater degree of resilience when compared to conventional banks during the most recent financial crisis. The bank also noticed an upswing of fresh clients, partly due to what he considers a shift in perception. DIB recently launched a comprehensive SME offering targeted towards the SME sector in the UAE. The product and services suite primarily focuses around the liquidity management and working capital finance needs of the customers across this segment, Mr. Chilwan explains. DIB is also pursuing a growth strategy, looking at opportunities in Indonesia and Kenya.

Al-Rajhi Bank (Malaysia) provided RM325,000 in funding today to two education centres under the management of Yayasan Salam. The centres are the Taska Baitul Amal and Pusat Jagaan Baitul Amal, and the funding was under the bank's corporate social responsibility (CSR) Baitul Amal Children's Programme which provides for 70 children from the ages of two months to six years. Roseta Mohd Jaafar, Al-Rajhi Bank's vice-president and head of corporate communications said the programme was geared towards helping underprivileged children in the Jalan Chow Kit area. Registered under the Social Welfare Department, the Taska Baitul Amal was officially launched on July 19, 2010 and the Pusat Jagaan Baitul Amal on January 2, 2012.

Islamic finance aims to move into infrastructure, as governments and bankers plan a new organisation to handle deals and expand efforts to use sukuk for projects in majority-Muslim countries. An estimated US$800 billion (RM2.96 trillion) worth of infrastructure financing will be needed each year in Asia over the next decade. But so far, technical, legal and political issues have mostly confined sharia-compliant infrastructure deals to mid-sized ones with shorter tenors. Only a handful of project finance deals have been done. Governments are now trying to break the impasse. Indonesia, Turkey and the Islamic Development Bank said last month that they planned to launch an Islamic infrastructure bank, with Indonesia and Turkey pledging at least US$300 million each.

Al Hilal Bank has on Tuesday, June 2, 2015 inaugurated its new branch in Masdar City, a mixed-use project being developed in Abu Dhabi which is envisioned to emerge as the world’s most sustainable eco-city. Aside from meeting the conventional and Islamic banking needs of the surrounding community, the branch also serves as a hub for students of the nearby Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The banking facility integrates elements such as a vending machine and wall-mounted touch screens for social media interaction to provide a venue for the Institute’s students and faculty to do research or simply to relax. Al Hilal Bank now has a total of 25 branches spread across the UAE in addition to three overseas branches in Kazakhstan.

There is an ample scope of Islamic banking and finance in western Africa and Senegal can play a vital role in elevating it through the countries. This was said by Muhammad Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE) while attending an international seminar on Takaful. Delegates from Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Guinea and other countries of western Africa participated in the stated seminar. Mr. Mughal added that AlHuda CIBE has chalked down a robust strategy to promote Islamic banking and finance in West African countries. He announced that AlHuda CIBE with its strategic partner AAMAS Africa will organize an international conference on Islamic banking and finance in Dakar in December 2015.

Middle East fund managers have on balance become bearish on the region’s biggest stock market, Saudi Arabia, after oil’s rally ran out of steam and the Kingdom confirmed strict rules on foreign investment, a monthly Reuters survey shows. The survey of 15 leading investment firms, conducted over the past 10 days, shows none expects to raise its equity allocation to the Middle East in the next three months — the first time this has been recorded since the survey was launched in September 2013. The proportion intending to cut equity allocations has risen to 20 percent from 7 percent. Also, falling trading volumes and thin corporate news flow indicate that markets are already slipping into a summer lull.

The Middle East private equity industry, which went through a period of shake out post-financial crisis is back on its feet and the market has matured in the last five years in terms of deal structures, volumes and values, according to industry practitioners. Family-owned businesses, in particular, are looking for ways to grow and expand regionally or internationally and they too are becoming more sophisticated in how they structure and govern their businesses in order to attract private equity investors, said Alexander Gross, Director at Merrill DataSite. Overall, the panellists agreed that there is more maturity on the sellers’ side and they recognise the value of private equity, more than they did five years ago.

Burgeoning youth populations across the developing world emphasize the importance of achieving sustainable economic growth and providing widespread employment opportunities. Economic inclusion refers to equality of opportunity for all members of society to participate in the economic life of their country as employers, entrepreneurs, consumers and citizens — and the private sector is a central partner in fostering economic growth. CIPE’s latest Economic Reform Feature Service article outlines strategies to build a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem by engaging traditionally under-represented groups in economic and political life.

TH Plantations Bhd has issued RM1bil of sukuk murabahah to parent company Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH) to raise funds for its subsidiaries to repay their bridging loans. The RM1bil sukuk is part of the sukuk murabahah programme of up to RM1.2bil in nominal value set up by its unit, THP Suria Mekar Sdn Bhd, with LTH. RHB Investment Bank Bhd has been appointed as the principal adviser, lead arranger, facility agent and lead manager for the sukuk programme. In separate announcements, TH Plantations said it had appointed as directors LTH deputy group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Johan Abdullah, Datuk Md Yusop Omar and Datuk Shari Osman.

Herman Gref, the head of Russia’s largest bank Sberbank, welcomed the introduction of Islamic banking in the country’s traditionally Muslim regions, saying it would help attract capital from Arab countries. The rapid growth of the Muslim population in Russia contributes to a sharp increase in demand for Islamic banking tools expected in the coming years, said Samir Tagiyev, manager for business development in the CIS and Europe, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). The Russian government has to elaborate a legal framework that will integrate Islamic banking into Russia's financial system.

The new 10y INDOIS 25 4.325% issued this month was oversubscribed 3.4 times (x) vs. 10y INDOIS 24 4.35% was at 6.82x. Another example is the Hong Kong sukuk that was issued this week (5y GBHK 20 1.84%) had a bid-to-cover (BTC) of 2x compared to its inaugural sukuk was oversubscribed at 4.7x. We believe the slower orders could partly be due to some liquidity tightening expectation later this year or in 2016 from lower oil prices and/or US Fed rate hike. We also see a similar trend in GCC issuers. We opine geopolitics, liquidity pressures, low oil prices and rate hike expectations may slow demand in 2015, but will remain within a healthy range.