IslamicFinance.de

Bank Rakyat has recently launched its second edition of the Islamic Banker Programme which aims to produce future leaders for the banking industry. The programme recently received recognition from the 26th World HRD Congress 2018 by winning three top awards: Innovation in Recruitment, Best Apprenticeship and Usage of Digital Media in Recruitment. Throughout the training period, each trainee will be assigned to a mentor from the senior management team. Initially, each trainee will go through a two-month training program before they undergo job rotation across the key business units within the Bank for 10 months. Then, they will be placed in a particular sector based on their respective strengths and interests for a year. At the end, their performance will be assessed before being offered permanent placement at Bank Rakyat. At the end of the two year internship, participants will also be awarded with the Chartered Professional in Islamic Finance (CPIF) certificate from the Chartered Institute of Islamic Finance Professionals (CIIF).

Dubai Investments announced the establishment of a new Islamic bank called Arkan Bank. It will be the first home-grown, wholesale Islamic Bank operating from Dubai International Financal Centre. It will have an initial paid-up capital of $100 million and another $100 million will be raised after 12 months of its establishment through listing on Nasdaq. CEO Khalid Bin Kalban said Dubai Investments will initially hold a 25% in the bank and would aim to retain a stake of that size. He added that Arkan Bank's core business lines would be corporate banking, asset management and awqaf, investment banking and treasury. Arkan Bank initially plans to focus on the GCC region and subsequently build scale to become the top-tier Islamic wholesale bank in the region.

Dubai Investments will lead a consortium of investors to launch Arkan Bank. Arkan Bank is now applying to the Dubai Financial Services Authority for approval for a licence to operate as an Islamic financial institution. It plans to offer sharia-compliant banking services and investment products to serve ultra-high-net-worth individuals, corporates, and institutional clients. The bank has an initial paid-up-capital of $100 million and will have an authorised share capital of $500 million. Arkan Bank chairman Khalid Bin Kalban said the bank would initially focus on the GCC region and subsequently build scale to become the top-tier Islamic wholesale bank. The bank plans to list its shares on NASDAQ Dubai within 12 months of its establishment.

Qatar’s second listed exchange traded fund (ETF), the Al Rayan Qatar ETF will begin trading tomorrow on Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE). Al Rayan Qatar ETF is the first Shariah-compliant exchange traded fund listed on QSE.
The ETF, issued by Masraf Al Rayan, will track the QE Al Rayan Islamic Index. The Fund will track the performances of 18 stock index of Sharia-compliant Qatari listed equities. Al Rayan Investment is the Fund Manager. HSBC Bank Middle East is the Investment Custodian. According to the prospectus issued by the Fund Manager, the Fund is structured as an open-ended vehicle with a maximum limit of issued capital of QR2bn. The base currency of the Fund is Qatari Riyal and the Fund will only invest in securities denominated in Qatari Riyal.

The Pakistani government is mulling a dedicated division at the finance ministry to deal with Islamic finance. The Prime Minister's Finance adviser, Miftah Ismail said the committee would be set up for the promotion of Islamic banking in Pakistan. He also said that the country is set to achieve a six percent economic growth in the current fiscal year. Deputy Governor Jameel Ahmad at State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said Islamic finance industry needs to expand its product menu with special focus to reach out to the unserved sectors and regions. Ahmad said development of all components of Islamic finance industry is imperative to achieve inclusive economic development.

There was a time when Bitcoin was used often for buying of illegal substances, from drugs to guns and even hitmen. It was decentralized, anonymous and digital. As Bitcoin has organically grown and been adopted into more mainstream markets, the use of the digital currency as a Darknet tool has been declining. According to a recent analysis conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, weapons represent a very small portion of the overall trade on anonymous marketplaces. Drugs are far more common. Specifically, MDMA and marijuana each account for about 25% of sales on the dark web. Yet, the vast majority of drug users still purchase illicit substances via more 'traditional' methods. According to a 2017 Global Drug Survey, the global median for a percentage of drug users who use the darknet is 10.1%. The ease and convenience of buying online extends to the illegal markets, and just because there is a tool to do it with, doesn’t mean that the tool is the enemy.

Cybercriminals launder an estimated $80-200 billion in illegal profit each year, which amounts to 8-10% of all illegal proceeds laundered around the world. Virtual currencies are the most common tool used for money laundering, but Bitcoin isn't quite as trendy among hackers. The data comes from Into the Web of Profit, an independent academic study conducted by Dr. Mike McGuire, senior lecturer in Criminology at Surrey University in England.
There are several reasons why cybercriminals are turning to cryptocurrency. They're easily acquired, for one, and they have a reputation for enabling anonymous transactions. According to McGuire, there's almost a wholesale movement away from Bitcoin because Bitcoin's blockchain technology means all transactions are transparent, even if the users' identities remain concealed. Now cybercriminals are adopting more anonymous currencies like Monero and Zcash.

In this interview, Zahid Parekh, General Manager of Habib Bank Limited (HBL), speaks about the evolution and future of Islamic banking. In his view, Islamic banking has evolved as a natural phenomenon in Pakistan. HBL's initial focus was to bring in the faith-based customers and as a second step, to target the sceptics through personalised awareness campaigns. These initiatives have made a difference in changing mindsets and expanding the customer base. HBL has a wide banking portfolio and is looking to introduce a new Shariah-compliant mortgage solution in the forthcoming months. HBL has been a frontrunner in FinTech, it established the Innovation and Financial Inclusion Department almost two years ago, with the sole purpose of digitising banking processes. The concept of FinTech is still new in Pakistan, but Parekh believes it will be a game-changer not only for the Islamic banking sector, but for the overall banking sector as well.

The Indonesian government sold 8.44 trillion rupiah ($613.19 million) of sukuk bonds to local retail investors. The sales were slightly higher than the initially-allotted 8.11 trillion rupiah. The tradeable sukuk carry a fixed annual rate of 5.9%, similar to the average rate offered by Islamic banks for 12-month and longer time deposits. The sukuk was sold to a total of 17,922 Indonesians this year. Since the retail sukuk was first launched in 2009, the government has sold a total of 144.78 trillion rupiah of the debt to nearly 250,000 people.

The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan (TFEB) to exchange knowledge, experience and best practices in Islamic economy. The MoU was signed by Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy and chairman of DIEDC, and Rahimberdy J. Jepbarov, chairman of TFEB. The centre aims to organise workshops and training courses and share professional research. In addition, the two parties have set up a joint committee to oversee the collaboration. Al Mansouri said this partnership between DIEDC and TFEB would strengthen synergies between the two countries. He further highlighted sukuk as an effective tool to finance projects in infrastructure, education and health care, as well as in other vital sectors of the economy.

Growth in global sukuk issuance is expected to remain muted this year although issuance volumes are likely stable. Moody’s Senior Analyst Nitish Bhojnagarwala expects sukuk issuances to remain broadly stable between $90-$100 billion in 2018, again driven largely by sovereigns. Although the financing needs of sovereigns, banks and corporates in the GCC have decreased in recent months due to higher oil prices, these issuers are expected to continue to support the industry. Sukuk market activity is also supported by specialised multilateral entities, such as quasi-sovereigns, central banks and supranational entities, including the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the International Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) and the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP). Moody’s estimate that total sovereign sukuk volumes will remain stable in 2018 although some of the large issuances in 2017 may not be repeated in 2018, driving a marginal decline in the overall value.

A major type of alternative equity investment is through venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE), which represent an ownership stake in a private company. With the assistance of VC and PE, some companies may grow and become public companies through initial public offerings (IPOs). In 2017, the UAE and Saudi Arabia led IPO activity in the GCC, with five listings in the UAE, four in Saudi Arabia, three in Oman and one in Qatar. Much of the activity has been in the region's relatively new Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market. IPO activity in the region has been focused mainly on large state-owned enterprises, while public equity markets are still classified as ‘frontier’ and ‘emerging’. Throughout the region there is a growing ecosystem of economic free zones, business incubators, co-working spaces, conferences and awards for start-up companies. There is no doubt that the level of VC and PE activity will continue to grow in the region just as the public markets will continue to evolve.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, sukuk issuance grew 17% in 2017 to reach US$100 billion, underpinned by large sovereign transactions from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. At the same time, new issuers came into the market last year, including some corporates from China and France. The sukuk market activity is also supported by specialized multilateral entities, such as quasi-sovereigns, central banks and supranationals, including the Islamic Development Bank, the International Liquidity Management Corporation and many others.

Oragroup received €40 million from the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). The funds which will be dispatched to various subsidiaries of the group such as Orabank Togo, will mainly be used to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs). According to Binta Touré Ndoye, Managing Director of Oragroup, this financing will help the region by creating jobs, accelerating industrialization and local processing, creating value, redistributing wealth, fighting poverty and contributing to the emergence of the middle class.

Venture capital was of limited significance in the Muslim world until the recent past. Things came into gear when Malaysia in 2016 launched the world’s first Islamic venture capital fund endowed with $100mn to provide seed financing for startup companies and entrepreneurs. A company financed by Islamic venture capital cannot have conventional debt on its books or use debt in any way for expansion. In a first step, a startup seeking Islamic venture capital needs to be checked very thoroughly. Next, suitable Shariah-compliant financing models need to be chosen. The three common structures used in Islamic venture capital are mudaraba, musharaka and wakala. A fourth concept is shirka, where two or more partners invest a certain amount of capital in a start-up and share the benefits on a pre-agreed basis. The investing parties are equally involved in any decision to change the strategy of the company, even after the disbursement of funds.

Bidaya Home Finance revealed plans to sell Islamic sukuk bonds worth 500 million SAR. Bidaya Home Finance hired the services of Ashmore Investment Saudi Arabia to arrange the program.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) hosted a delegation from Cote d’Ivoire composed of 40 entrepreneurs, the Ambassador of Cote d’Ivoire in Saudi Arabia, the President of Chamber of Commerce of Cote d’Ivoire and the Vice president of the Confederation of Corporation of Cote d’Ivoire. The B2B Meeting was an opportunity to exchange on the opportunities of doing business in Cote d’Ivoire. ICD re-emphasized its commitment to support the private sector in Cote d’Ivoire through Direct Investments, Investments in dedicated Funds and through Line of Financing to financial institutions.

The sale of Zitouna bank and Takaful continues and is expected to end in July 2018, by which time we should know the identity of the final buyer. The bank had posted a net banking income of 101.748 MD, an operating profit of 19.411 MD and a net profit of 12.630 MD at the end of the 2016. For its part, the Zitouna Takaful posted a net profit of 2.490 MD in the same year. The company will have more than doubled its result compared to 1.054 MD in 2015. This, in connection with the high level of imports which have been on an upward trend in recent years, reaching 12.8 billion dinars in 2017.

Gatehouse Bank has launched a Shariah-compliant home finance platform, enabling intermediaries to process home finance and buy-to-let applications quicker. The platform is developed by financial services software provider BEP Systems and uses cloud-based mobile-ready technology. Gatehouse Bank CEO Charles Haresnape is delighted to partner with BEP Systems. The bank currently offers buy-to-let finance and plans to roll out Shariah-compliant home owner finance through selected brokers in the near future.

The number of chronically undernourished people in the world is rising. In 2016, the number of people without enough to eat increased to 815 million, up from 777 million the year before. Ending global hunger is not just about breeding drought-resistant corn, it is also about having a plan for when that corn fails anyway. It is as much about reimagining social networks as it is about deciding what goes into the ground. It is crucial to invest in new technologies that enable farmers to connect with information and institutions that can decrease uncertainty and mitigate risk. With access to data, markets and financial services, farmers can plant, fertilize, harvest and sell products more effectively. For example, in Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, local extension services are delivering real-time weather data to vegetable farmers via SMS. In West Africa, private companies such as Ignitia are expanding the accuracy and precision of SMS weather alerts to remote farmers.