IslamicFinance.de

Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group ( ABG ) has achieved a net income of US$ 197 million in the first nine months of 2013, an increase of 8% on the net income achieved in the first nine months of 2012. Similarly, statement of financial positions witnessed moderate increases. Total assets increased by 4%, investments and financing portfolio by 5% and customer accounts by 2% as at the end of September 2013 as compared with the end of December 2012. The net income amounted to US$ 197 in first nine months of 2013 compared to US$ 183 million in first nine months of 2012, which reflects an increase of 8%. With regard to the Group's plans to expand its branch network, the President & Chief Executive said that the subsidiary units of the Group in Turkey, Egypt, and Sudan continued opening new branches.

Dear Reader,

Frequently I am being asked about advice on topics for student's thesis. More often than I actually would have ideas at hand.

Now, what I would suggest is two things:

1) In general: Write about a topic useful for Islamic banking rather than the 1001 work about the core principles. Responsible investment, impact investing and the like is good to study and then learn from each other.

2) Specifically, my idea of the idea: Sukuk is a new market. A concern in the first years was that nobody knows how a default would be turning out. Now as we have a small number of default and near default cases there is a possibility of analyzing the outcomes and derive conclusions. A topic with real practical relevance.

All the best,

Michael Saleh Gassner

Bosna Bank International (BBI) was established in 2000 as the first Islamic bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the first bank of this kind in Europe. The bank resulted from a greenfield investment by Islamic Development Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank. BBI had to overcome challenges like compliance with both Islamic banking principles and State Law on Banks, and the lack of awareness among Bosnians. Additional challenges were the education of workforce and how to overcome the market challenge. Today, BBI offers all types of commercial banking products which are all in compliance with Islamic principles and competitive to other banks’ offers. For more information see the attached document.

Due to the enormous requests received during the past few weeks IdealRatings research team conducted Shariah screening on the recent Twitter, Inc. IPO and the stock is to be considered Shariah compliant and eligible for investment as per AAOIFI guidelines.

contact support@idealratings.com for further details

Maybank Islamic is confident of continuing its growth trajectory this year. Chief executive officer Muzaffar Hisham said the bank is looking at a pre-tax profit and zakat growth of between 10 and 15 per cent, after a 25 per cent growth to RM1.19 billion last year. The bank's growth will be led by an increase in cross-border transactions, which he said are on a steady rise. Indonesia and Singapore are the next key growth areas for Maybank Islamic. Muzaffar said he wants to grow the bank's cross-border investments via its treasury services window at Maybank Hong Kong. The bank has a strong retail banking presence in Singapore and has issued one sukuk in the island state. In Indonesia, its Islamic banking reach is through Maybank Group's subsidiary, Bank Internasional Indonesia. He added that the bank is also targeting to attract corporations from the United Kingdom wanting to expand in Asia.

The 2nd Annual Islamic Banking Summit Africa (IBSA 2013), which opened today in Djibouti, saw more than 350 leaders in the international Islamic banking and finance industry engage in discussions that focused on capturing the growth opportunity for Islamic finance and Takaful in Africa. The inaugural session of the two day event assessed the progress and development of Islamic finance in Africa and discussed required key government and regulatory initiatives. The keynote plenary session discussed key strategies for capacity building and how to best position Islamic finance as a catalyst for a new wave of economic development in Africa. The Power Debate session discussed key initiatives to strengthen Islamic finance’s links to the real economy in Africa and connect Africa to the broader world of Islamic finance.

Police have named two more suspects in an alleged Bank Syariah Mandiri scam implicating three bank officials, bringing the total number of suspects to six. The two latest suspects are Hen Hen Gunawan and doctor Rizky Adiansyah. Gunawan allegedly used the identity cards of his 26 employees to embezzle up to Rp 12.4 billion ($1.1 million) from the bank through its loan scheme. Rizky, meanwhile, allegedly borrowed ID cards of some of his neighbors to siphon Rp 12.2 billion from the bank. These two new suspects were ‘instructed’ by an accounting officer of the Bogor branch of BSM, John Lopulisa. John was earlier arrested, along with the head of BSM‘s primary branch in Bogor, M. Agustinus Masrie, the head of a smaller Bogor branch, Haerulli Hermawan, and Iyan Permana. The fraud is believed to have cost the bank Rp 59 billion.

Turkish lender Türkiye Finans plans to issue both lira and foreign currency-denominated sukuk in 2014, according to Chief Executive Derya Gürerk. The lender, majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank, issued a $500 million sukuk earlier this year. The move reflects Turkey’s growing Islamic finance industry as the government promotes a wider range of Islamic finance products. The country now has 50 banks, four of which are Islamic: Al Baraka Turk, Bank Asya, Türkiye Finans and Kuveyt Türk, 62 percent owned by Kuwait Finance House. These banks have seen their assets grow six-fold over the last decade as their combined branch network has more than tripled.

Lately, for the Middle East & North Africa region, a long list of big-name institutions and investors have been recommending that investing in MENA's technology sector may be the way to address their unemployment and infrastructural problems -- even the political unrest. Meanwhile, a variety of NGOs are establishing themselves in the MENA region, or regrouping, to better fix the infrastructural problems they see -- and maybe the unemployment. Technology and philanthropy may operate better within a social enterprise model that rewards talent -- achieving "social good" together. On Thursday, November 7, Al-Mubadarah (The Arab Empowerment Initiative) will host the first summit on philanthropy and technology in Washington, D.C.: MENA + SocialGood.

Islamic International Rating Agency has upgraded the national scale ratings of Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (Kuwait Finance House–Turkey) on both the short-term and long-term scale to AA-/A-1+ from A+/A-1 previously. Ratings on the international scale have been reaffirmed with local currency ratings at BBB/A-3 and foreign currency assessment at BBB-/A-3. Outlook on the ratings is ‘Stable’. According to IIRA, a significant ratings driver is the fact that the bank stands to benefit from strategic and financial support if needed, both implied and explicit. Additionally, the board and management of the bank have remained stable, with several of the key personnel having been associated with the bank for a number of years.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has launched new capital-protected silver notes to allow customers to invest in a metal that analysts believe may soon see a price rebound. The Shari’a-compliant notes, which mature in two years, provide 100 percent capital protection at maturity to minimize risk. The notes are currently open for subscription with a minimum amount of US$30,000. This latest offering is part of ADIB’s wealth management approach to provide customers a diversified suite of investment solutions. ADIB’s structured notes have been well received by investors, particularly three capital-protected gold notes and two capital-protected oil notes that matured at the beginning of this year.

Kuwait Finance House has signed a memorandum of understanding to finance $115 million for Bahrain-based Foulath Holding Company for five years. Shaheen Al-Ghanem, International Banks General Manager, KFH said the deal was part of KFH’s efforst to expand in foreign markets. Foulath is owned by GIC and Qatar steel Company in addition to the National Industries Group, Gulf Cables and Kuwait Foundry Company. Foulath owns factories in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and its businesses cover various countries in the Middle East.

Omani real estate developer Tilal Development Co has sold the country's first Islamic bond, a 50 million rial ($130 million) sukuk. Tilal's five-year sukuk, offering a profit rate of 5 percent and based on an ijara structure was privately placed with investors, arranger Al Madina Investment said. About 95 percent of the sukuk, rated BBB+ by Cyprus-based Capital Intelligence, was placed with local investors including pension firms and banks. Tilal, 40 percent-owned by sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, will use proceeds from its sukuk to expand the Tilal Complex in Muscat, a flagship project which includes the Muscat Grand Mall as well as residential and office space.

Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom has announced that the U.K. will become the first non-Muslim country to issue a Sukuk, with a £200 million issue planned for early 2014. Cameron also announced plans for a new Islamic index on the London Stock Exchange. These initiatives are all part of a grand plan by the U.K. government to turn London into a global capital of Islamic finance. At the same time, the World Bank Global Islamic Finance Center in Istanbul is the result of the collaboration between the Turkish government, Turkish private-sector entities and the Bank Group, aiming to create a “center of excellence” for the development of Islamic finance. However, there is a need to strengthen its legal foundations and develop robust regulatory and supervisory frameworks globally.

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Initiative has announced the launch of a new reporting framework for its signatories that is aimed to increase the transparency of their investment activitie. The framework consists of approximately 220 indicators relating to investment policies and practices. The indicators are grouped into modules based on the following asset classes: listed equities, fixed income, private equity, property, infrastructure and inclusive finance. By mid-2014, approximately 800 of the 1,209 signatories are expected to have used the new framework. PRI will delist members that fail to report by then.

In an effort to prevent any repeat of Dubai's corporate debt crisis, the UAE central bank plans to restrict the amount of exposure banks can have to the debt of government-related entities. The rules will be issued by the end of this year and banks are expected to be given about five years to finish complying with them. A period of consultations between the central bank and commercial banks ensued. Last week, the UAE central bank issued restrictions on mortgage loans in order to limit speculation in the real estate market; the caps were not as stringent as initially planned because of lobbying by the banking industry.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has announced that it intends to list Dh37 billion sukuk programme on Nasdaq Dubai. The move represents a momentous addition to the constant successes of ‘Dubai the Capital of Islamic Economy’ initiative. Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani, president of the IDB, said that Dubai’s exchange and regulatory architecture together with its commitment to providing Islamic finance solutions of high quality make it a natural home for IDB's securities. It is noteworthy that Dubai capital markets have successfully attracted sukuk issues of Dh46 billion since the launch of ‘Dubai, the global sukuk centre’, and this number is expected to reach Dh60 billion by year end.

Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) listed two sukuk, each with a nominal value of 500 million dollars, a total of 1 billion dollars (AED 3.67 billion), on NASDAQ Dubai. The issuances raised the total value of Sukuk listed on Dubai’s exchanges to 12.08 billion dollars (AED 44.4 billion), the third largest amount in the world. The listing of EIB’s Sukuk on NASDAQ Dubai took place in September. The yield on the HSBC/ NASDAQ Dubai US Dollar NASDAQ Dubai-Listed Sukuk Index has fallen to 3.76% from 4.5% at the beginning of September, implying greater demand for the securities in the index.

A recent report by Standard and Poor indicates that while Islamic banks in the GGG are likely to grow faster than their conventional counterparts, profititability rates for the two banking models are converging as Islamic banks take a hit from comparatively lower interest rates and non-core banking revenues. The economies of the countries that make up the GCC are showing robust recovery after the 2008 economic crisis, with Qatar looking particularly strong. The region has one of the world's largest Islamic banking markets and the sector has healthy performance metrics. S&P predicts that Islamic banking in the region will continue to increase its market share, and they expect the operating environment over the next two years to remain supportive for Islamic banks' business and credit quality.

David Cameron, the British prime minister, announced plans to issue sovereign sukuk as early as next year at the ninth annual World Islamic Economic Forum in London on October 29th. The convention marks the first time the event has been held outside the Muslim world. That is a testament to the rising global clout of Islamic finance. The Gulf states have been at the forefront of the boom, other countries like Turkey are emulating the Gulf model. However, the prospects in the wider Middle East, e.g. Egypt and Lybia, are less clear. Despite Islamic finance’s being the toast of the town in the City of London this week, the struggle to make it work in the heart of the Muslim world continues.