IslamicFinance.de

Bahrain's Ithmaar Bank has announced its chief executive Mohammed Bucheerei is to retire at the end of August and be replaced by Ahmed Abdul Rahim, currently general manager, as acting head. Bucheerei led the bank's transition from an Islamic investment bank to a retail Islamic lender offering a range of Shari'ah-compliant products.

Qatar-based Barwa Bank recently announcd aseries of changes to its leadership team including the promotions of Khalid Al-Ahbabi to General Manager, Wholesale & Business Banking and Hussain al-Abdulla to General Manager, Personal Banking & Wealth Management, a new role for Keith Bradley as Group Chief Operating Officer & General Manager International as well as the appointment of Nasser Mohamad Al-Hajiri as Chief Administrative Officer. Each individual has several years of experience in the banking sector.

Turkish Islamic lender Bank Asya plans to issue at least 125 million lira ($62 million) of lira-denominated sukuk by the end of the year, according to deputy general manager Feyzullah Egriboyun. Bank Asya applied to the Capital Markets Board to issue sukuk worth up to 1 billion lira in July.

Bahraini lender Al Baraka Bank's Turkish unit plans to issue more than $200 million of sukuk, in the last quarter of this year or early 2014, according to executive vice president Ayhan Keser. Keser said the timing would depend on market conditions and the maturity of the sukuk was likely to be 5 years.

Although Islamic banking in still its infancy in sub-Saharan Africa, it is heading for its breakthrough. By the end of this decade it’s quite possible that banking complying with Shariah law could grow to account for up to 10 per cent of banking assets in five or six sub-Saharan African countries, including Kenya and Nigeria. With the first licenses granted in Kenya just 5 to 6 years ago, that would make Africa’s leap into Islamic banking much faster than markets such as Pakistan and Indonesia, where Islamic financial services have been available for longer. Standard Chartered sees Africa as the next frontier for the industry. That’s why the company will be launching its Islamic banking brand, Saadiq, in Kenya shortly, with plans to expand into other countries in both East and West Africa in the future.

Bank Negara has rejected BIMB Holdings’ proposed move to issue sukuk using Bank Islam Malaysia’s shares as security for the debt, but has allowed the former to acquire the remaining 49% stake in the latter. The central bank has then requested to source and notify the bank on suitable alternative assets as security for the proposed sukuk. An analyst felt the rejection by the central bank would not deter or derail BIMB’s plans to acquire Bank Islam, although it may slow down the purchase process. Last month, BIMB had announced the proposed acquisition of the remaining stake in Bank Islam – 30.5% from the Dubai Financial Group and 18.5% from Lembaga Tabung Haji – for a total cash consideration of US$884.6mil (RM2.87bil). This was to be financed via a two-for-five rights issue of 426.7 million new shares, and a sukuk issuance of up to RM1.47bil.

Kuwait's Warba Bank will be listed on the country's stock exchange tomorrow after a restriction on public trading of the stock ended. A majority of the shares in the lender, set up with a capital of 100 million dinars ($351m), were gifted to Kuwaiti nationals as part of the state's wealth sharing, with each citizen receiving 684 shares. The remaining 24 per cent is owned by the sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority. The listing does not include sale of any new shares. Shareholders were restricted from trading their stock on the exchange for three years after the April 2010 establishment date.

Nigerian Jaiz Bank has entered into a partnership with Teasy Mobile Money, a CBN-licensed Mobile Payment Operator, to provide financial services to Nigerians, through Mobile Phone. This is part of their efforts to implement financial services inclusion of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to everyone in the society. Jaiz bank will collaborate with Teasy Mobile Money in developing programs, projects and other activities that are targeted at providing a robust mobile payment and deposit platform capable of delivering end-to-end mobile banking solutions. The service will allow customers to have access to their money beyond banking hours, anywhere. Additionally, Teasy Mobile Money customers will now be able to use Jaiz Bank offices nationwide as Service Points.

Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt has announced its net profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2013, jumped around 68% to EGP413.2m. The Shari'ah-compliant lender reported net profits of EGP281m for the corresponding period a year earlier.

Ibrahim Hassan will assume his post as the new CEO and managing director of the RHB Banking Group's Islamic banking arm from Sept 2, 2013. He will be responsible for overseeing the group's overall Islamic banking business and operations including driving its revenue, expanding the group's product range and customer portfolio growth across local and international boundaries. Prior to this, Ibrahim was the president director at PT Bank Maybank Syariah Indonesia. Ibrahim's appointment leaves the RHB Banking Group with only one vacancy – the top post at RHB Bank Bhd. RHBCap group managing director Kellee Kam is currently assuming the responsibilities of RHB Bank managing director in addition to his role at the group level. Earlier this month, RHB Investment Bank Bhd officer-in-charge Mike Chan Cheong Yuen was promoted to be its managing director and CEO.

The $490 million, three-month Sukuk, issued by the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM), was auctioned to seven primary dealers from Asia, theMiddle East and Europe. However, this will only be a major breakthrough for Islamic finance if IILM sukuk are actively traded by Islamic banks, rather than held to maturity. It is not clear whether the existing primary dealer network - which includes only two purely Islamic financial institutions - is broad enough to engineer trade in IILM sukuk across major markets. The prevalence of conventional banks in the dealer group suggests the IILM may have decided to choose the largest possible primary dealers in order to maximise distribution of the sukuk. But it also raises the possibility that the instrument could be bought by conventional institutions rather than the Islamic banks which most need it.

Al Baraka Bank Egypt, a subsidiary banking unit of Al Baraka Banking Group, announced the winning of the 'The Majestic Five Continents Award for Quality and Excellence' granted by the European Foundation 'Other Ways Management Association Club'. The Award will be delivered in a grand ceremony to be held in Geneva on 18 November 2013, and will be attended by official delegations and businessmen from 40 countries around the world. Al Baraka Bank Egypt won the prize as a result of aspects like high quality of customer service, creativity, teamwork, diversity of products of development and corporate finance, lease and assets finance, retail and treasury products, and foreign operations. Mr. Ashraf El Ghamrawy, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Al Baraka Bank Egypt, emphasized the bank's pioneering role in development finance and social responsibility through the Bank's Zakat fund, and the consolidation of partnership relations with all government and private agencies, among others.

Islamic Banking and Finance has been nearly confined to the rich people and as per the ideology of capitalism, the profit urge has captured the Islamic Financial Industry and discriminated the underprivileged people and letting them deprived from Islamic financial services. The commercialism has captured Islamic Finance institutions in such a way that business with and financing to the poor has gone astray from their agenda. The share of Islamic Microfinance is less than 1% from the overall volume of $ 1.3 trillion of Islamic Finance Industry. Islamic Microfinance can be energized by utilizing available charity amount of Islamic Banking and Finance industry to reduce poverty and fuel social development. Islamic Financial Institutions have to execute and promote Islamic Microfinance otherwise there is a definite chance of rumors that Islamic Banking and Finance services are only for rich people.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will boost its sukuk programme by more than 50 per cent by year-end as demand for financing from member countries, including Turkey and Morocco, grows. IDB aims to raise its medium-term note programme to US$10 billion (RM33 billion) from US$6.5 billion, so that it is ready to tap the market at any time. The increase will be the largest by value since the programme was started in 2005 by the almost 40-year-old bank.

Saudi British Bank (SABB), an affiliate of HSBC Holdings and the kingdom's third-largest listed lender by market value, is reportedly aiming to sell a Tier 2 capital-boosting Islamic bond before the end of the year. HSBC is advising SABB on the potential riyal-denominated transaction.

Indonesia’s need for dollars to defend the plunging rupiah will see the country pay the highest yield since 2009 when it sells global sukuk. The nation will offer around $1 billion of Shariah- compliant bonds after investor meetings. A yield of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent for 10-year securities is expected. Bank Indonesia announced measures aimed at increasing the supply of foreign-exchange on Aug. 23 to stem an 8.5 percent plunge in the rupiah this quarter. Moreover, the country raised its overall sales target to 231.8 trillion rupiah ($21 billion), from 180.4 trillion rupiah, as it set its budget deficit goal at 2.38 percent of gross domestic product. Besides, more shipments of unprocessed minerals will be allowed in order to narrow the current-account deficit.

Experts say that 85 percent of Saudi families do not save money and resort to diving into their savings or borrowing to meet their needs. The absence of savings is one of the biggest weaknesses of the Saudi economy. The spirit of consumption is dominant and this negatively affects economic growth and increases the rate of inflation due to the increased rate of consumption. Due to the absence of a culture of saving, Saudi families are exposed to financial woes every month, not because they earn a low income but because they never learned to save money and engage in financial planning. Most Saudi families suffer from over-spending and sometimes spend 10 percent more than they earn. This urges them to borrow money.

The Malaysia-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM) has issued its USD 490 million debut sukuk. The three-month Islamic bonds, denominated in US dollars, were fully subscribed. The IILM sukuk received a high A-1 credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, and the IILM has said it plans to increase its issuance eventually to as much as USD 3 billion. The sukuk, priced at 30 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate, was auctioned off to seven institutions from around the world. These primary dealers will now be responsible for selling the sukuk on to other Islamic banks and institutions in an effort to create an active market in the instruments.

Capital Intelligence (CI) has assigned Gulf Finance House (GFH) Long and Short-Term Ratings of 'BB-' and 'B', respectively. The ratings are supported by a significant reduction in leverage as a result of debt repayment and increases in equity, the successful restructuring of debt with an extended repayment period, and the return to profitability in 2012. The factors currently constraining the ratings are the forced debt restructuring in 2012, tight liquidity (although this improved in H1 2013), an encumbered asset base, a small balance sheet coupled with single name and sector concentrations in the asset base, reliance on deal flow for income generation, and the still challenging investment environment.In view of the improvement in both liquidity and leverage in H1 2013, a 'Positive' Outlook is assigned to the ratings.

Bank Islam Malaysia is confident of achieving more than 15% growth in profit before tax and zakat this year compared with RM600.3 million last year. Managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said consumer banking would continue to be the main contributor to achieve the target. 70% of the financing portfolio is to be contributed by consumer banking and the balance of 30% from corporate and commercial banking. For the first quarter of this year, the bank raked in profit before tax and zakat of RM151.5mil. However, Zukri said the economic growth which is somewhat slow currently and the new guidelines on responsible lending might affect the bank's financing growth.