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Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), the Gulf's largest utility firm, has reported its net loss for the first quarter more than doubled. It lost 1.94 billion riyals ($517.4 million) during the three months to March 31, compared to a loss of 913 million riyals during the corresponding period of 2014. The utility cited the costs of implementing an order from the electricity regulator on power usage by top manufacturers, as well as other expenses, for the decline in earnings. It did not elaborate. During the first quarter, the firm paid 545 million riyals to employees in bonuses as part of a scheme to celebrate the Saudi royal succession. Besides, SEC's results are highly seasonal because of the big swing between power demand in winter and in summer.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) plans to expand its cooperation with Azerbaijan in respond to the request of the national government. In this regard the bank may send the MDPS to the country. The material is distributed only on private subscription conditions. If you are interested in it please contact the Marketing Service of Fineko Agency.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Jaiz Bank on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to empower Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country. The objective of this collaboration is to design a cheap, affordable and sustainable financing product that will empower SMEs to expand their business operations, Alhaji Umar Masari, Director-General, SMEDAN said. According to him, the roles of SMEDAN in the MoU is to sensitise prospective beneficiaries to the benefit of the collaboration. The bank will facilitate MSME access to Federal Government’s MSME Development Funds, among others.

Malaysia's Bank Islam issued its first sukuk tranche worth 300 million ringgit ($83.13 million) under its 1 billion ringgit sukuk murabahah programme, BIMB Holdings Bhd said on Wednesday. The tranche has a 10-year tenure and could only be redeemed after 5 years. Proceeds will be used to finance its banking activities and working capital, all of which would be sharia compliant.

Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Zafar Hijazi said on Wednesday the regulator is looking to enhance Shariah compliance in the capital markets by restructuring and reorganising the Islamic capital market. Speaking at the fourth Islamic Finance Expo and Conference as chief guest, Hijazi discussed in detail the roadmap for the promotion of Islamic finance in Pakistan. He added that the SECP is centralising the Shariah-related capital market activities besides improving the regulatory framework for Takaful, Modarabas, Islamic mutual funds, Islamic pension funds and Islamic real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Maybank Islamic Bhd expects the bulk of its mudarabah deposit account holders to reclassify their accounts to mudarabah investment account (IA), in compliance with Bank Negara’s requirement. Chief executive officer Muzaffar Hisham said the 350,000 customers of the bank’s existing mudarabah deposit products had been given until May 31 to consent to either have their accounts reclassified as IA or other syariah-compliant deposit products. Some 70%-80% of the bank’s customers were expected to make the switch as the IA was a compliance requirement arising from the central bank’s Islamic Financial Services Act 2013.

Malaysia's $160 billion state pension fund will offer an Islamic investment option to its members by 2017 which would create the world's largest sharia-compliant fund of its kind, Prime Minister Najib Razak said. The move could funnel billions of dollars into sharia-compliant asset managers in Malaysia in a boon for the country's Islamic finance sector. Najib did not specify how big he thought the sharia-compliant standalone fund could be. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) already invests about a third of its portfolio in stocks and bonds that comply with Islamic principles. Najib said the Securities Commission is also developing a blueprint for the country's Islamic fund and wealth management industry to help chart its strategic direction.

Maybank Investment Bank, Public Islamic Bank and RHB Islamic Bank have entered into an agreement with Impian Bebas Sdn Bhd to provide a 15-year, RM1.08 billion syndicated Islamic term financing. Maybank IB was appointed as the coordinating bank and joint lead arranger (JLA) for the Islamic term financing together with Public Islamic and RHB Islamic. Impian Bebas, a joint venture company between KLCC (Holdings) Sdn Bhd and Sapura Resources Bhd, is developing a commercial land known as Lot 91 at Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) into a mixed commercial development comprising of office tower, convention centre and retail podium.

Three Malaysian banks are to provide property company Impian Bebas Sdn Bhd with a 15-year 1.08 billion ringgit ($298.34 million) syndicated Islamic financing, Maybank Investment Bank Bhd, one of the banks involved, said. Impian Bebas was created from a partnership between property and investmemt groups KLCC Holdings Sdn Bhd and Sapura Resources Berhad. It is to develop a plot of land in central Kuala Lumpur, close to the city's Petronas twin towers. Maybank IB was appointed as the joint lead arranger with Public Islamic Bank Bhd and RHB Islamic Bank Bhd , Maybank said in a statement.

Islamic Microfinance (IMF) is a novel method for human-oriented economic development and a capacity-building tool, which easily fits into the Islamic banking and finance (IBF) paradigm through social responsibility. A financial system should be able to provide financing to different segments of a given society such that, in addition to financial and economic objectives, social objectives may be served. It is imperative for IBF to fulfill such objectives alongside their business interests. Due to the complementarity between IBF and microfinance, there is a need to see further and proactive involvement of IBF and nonbanking Islamic institutions to provide IMF.

A rally in Malaysia’s two-year Islamic bonds lost its key driver after central bank Governor Zeti Akthar Aziz seemed to rule out an interest-rate cut. Malaysia’s borrowing costs are accommodative and the ringgit is undervalued, Zeti said. Maybank Investment Bank said there’s limited room for further declines in short-end yields, after they fell five times faster than those on 10-year notes in 2015. Franklin Templeton Investments Malaysia sees investors switching to longer tenors and forecasts no policy change this year. In the absence of any events that may lead to GDP falling below Bank Negara’s target, a cut in the overnight policy rate is considered unnecessary at this juncture.

Sabana Shariah Compliant REIT (SGX: M1GU) had released its fiscal first-quarter earnings yesterday evening. The real estate investment trust is sponsored by the small conglomerate Vibrant Group Ltd (SGX: F01). Currently, Sabana REIT owns a portfolio of 23 properties in Singapore, with assets worth a collective S$1.3 billion. Sabana REIT had achieved revenue of S$25.4 million in its fiscal first-quarter (three months ended 31 March 2015), a slight 3.2% year-on-year increase. However, its net property income only managed to grow by 1.1% from a year ago to S$18.6 million as a result of much higher property expenses. Besides, Sabana REIT’s net asset value per unit has decreased slightly to S$1.06 as at 31 March 2015 from S$1.09 a year ago.

Central banks in developed economies have created an environment of ultra-low interest rates to rekindle economic growth and to battle falling inflation. They’re doing this by keeping policy rates close to zero and “printing money” on an unprecedented scale via a veritable alphabet soup of programs, such as QE, CE, LTRO and TLTRO. These low interest rates have put a lot of pressure on investors, such as pension funds, to generate a decent return, setting off a massive search-for-yield frenzy. As a result, foreign investors current allocate more than $4 trillion to emerging and developing economies. Cheap foreign money can be highly addictive. It produces a pleasant growth buzz at first.

Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded to Baa3/Prime-3 from Baa2/Prime-2 the deposit, issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings of three Bahraini Banks: BBK B.S.C., National Bank of Bahrain BSC, and Bahrain Development Bank B.S.C. Concurrently, Moody's downgraded the baseline credit assessments (BCAs) of BBK and National Bank of Bahrain to ba1 from baa3. These actions follow Moody's downgrade of Bahrain's government bond ratings to Baa3 from Baa2 on 16 April 2015 and reflect (1) the government's reduced capacity of support, and (2) the challenges in view of weaker economic growth. The negative outlooks assigned to the Baa3 long-term ratings of the three banks are aligned with the negative outlook on the government's Baa3 bond rating.

Bank Asya climbed to the highest in seven months, extending last week’s record rally, amid optimism the lender may be released from government management. Shares in the company advanced 3.8 percent to 1.09 liras at 3:39 p.m. in Istanbul, the highest level since September. Bank Asya has gained more than 60 percent since April 9, when it said 152 shareholders, representing about 90 percent of Class A shares, delivered documents to the banking regulator proving they’re qualified to be founding partners. Bank Asya has been trading in a markets watchlist since September. Companies on the list trade under conditions of heightened surveillance, and trading is limited to the afternoon only.

Career women in the GCC are ambitious and want to lead in their organizations, with over 50 percent of those surveyed aiming at senior or board level position within the next seven years, according to a breakthrough report conducted by the Pearl Initiative. The report, titled ‘Women’s Careers in the GCC – The CEO Agenda’, follows a GCC-wide research program on women in senior management. Its findings and recommendations are consistent with the Women Empowerment Principles. While the report acknowledges the significant progress that has been made in the region for working women, it highlights several key areas of concern.

The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group has launched its Islamic banking unit as it seeks to tap into the growing demand for Islamic financial products across the East African region. The launch paves the way for the full roll-out of Shari’ah-compliant products under the proposition dubbed ‘KCB Sahl Banking’, after KCB received all the necessary regulatory approvals. In addition to the Kenyan operation, KCB Bank Tanzania is offering Islamic Banking services supported by the regulatory framework that is in place. For a start, KCB will roll out the Islamic Banking products in six of its branches as ahead of a national roll-out.

The International Monetary Fund, the world’s lender of last resort, has recently released a report on the effect of financial panics on Islamic banks. The working paper, published in February 2015 by Moazzam Farooq and Sajjad Zaheer, is based in Pakistan. In terms of methodology, the IMF paper examines the impact of a financial panic on the deposit and lending behavior of both Islamic and conventional banks in the country. Preliminary results by the report indicate that Islamic banking branches are less likely to experience a run on deposits compared to their conventional counterparts. The explanatory variables that illustrate why this is the case, however, are not so clearly defined.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has released final guidance on liquidity risk management for Islamic banks, which may spur national authorities to issue more sukuk and establish sharia-compliant deposit insurance schemes. The guidance note, known as GN-6, clarifies the tools that Islamic banks can use to meet Basel III regulatory requirements, now being phased in for both conventional and sharia-compliant banks around the world. It defines the types of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) that Islamic banks can hold and the weights that should be assigned to Islamic deposits.

Russia hopes to learn from the experience of Azerbaijan in the field of Islamic banking, said Sergey Drobyshevsky, the scientific director of the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy in Baku. He said the presence of IBA Moscow, a Russian subsidiary of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, must contribute to this. Drobyshevsky believes it will be easier for the Azerbaijani banks and businessmen to work in Russia than the Malaysian specialists of that sphere. Behnam Gurbanzada, the director of Islamic banking at the IBA, earlier called Russia a "promising" platform to further the development of Islamic finance.