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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted Jaiz Bank national license to operate Islamic non-interest banking in all the states of the federation. Chairman of Jaiz Bank Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallab said the bank intends to roll out in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in two or three months times. Alhaji Sa’ad Abubarkar III, the Sultan of all Muslims in Nigeria, congratulated and warned that Jaiz bank must conform with all rules and regulations of Islam.

Financial experts and researchers at international conference on Islamic financing have emphasised the need for framing a holistic vision for inclusive growth and promotion of Islamic mode of financing essentially with focus on poverty alleviation, access to loans to small growers, and reducing income inequalities. The two-day international moot titled “Towards Financial Inclusion: Developments in Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance”, held under the auspices of Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance (CEIF), IMSciences, in collaboration with the State Bank of Pakistan, and the UK Department for International Development (UK-DFID), aimed at promoting academic, research, and best industry practices of Islamic finance as joint venture with commercial banks, regulators, universities, Islamic financial resources centers.

Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has said Islamic Banking institution can revitalise the troubled Nigerian economy if well adopted. According to him, one of the major benefits of the system is to reduce poverty. He spoke yesterday at the Third Annual Holiday Convention of the Guild of Muslim Professionals (GMP) at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Topo, Badagry in Lagos State. The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, who disclosed that non-Muslim countries including Cote d’Voire, Senegal and Gambia are picking interest in the Sukuk, the Islamic banking system, also called for increased awareness on the Islamic Banking system. He urged scholars to avail themselves of the opportunity of the training sessions organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Ambassador Adamu Babangida Ibrahim, a banker, has served as Nigerian Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of Guinea. Ambassador Ibrahim is the pioneer Director-General, Jaiz Charity and Development Foundation, a charity arm of the Jaiz Bank. Jaiz Foundation uses the income that the bank cannot recognise under their profit and loss as Halal income for charity purposes. These monies are supposed to be used for charity and development purposes for interventions, especially in the poor and underserved people for economic empowerment, for intervention in health, education and so forth.

Pakistan's central bank will sell 49.5 billion rupees ($503.8 million) of Islamic bonds, the country's first such issuance in 15 months, with pricing to be set on Wednesday. The sukuk will inject a much-needed liquidity management tool for the domestic Islamic banking industry. The appetite for local currency sukuk has grown with Islamic banks posting double-digit asset growth, but the government has been unable to match demand, constraining the sector's financing and investment capability. The government has not indicated whether it would issue more local currency sukuk this year, although the finance ministry has said it was considering issuing dollar-denominated sukuk.

Pakistan will reportedly receive 250 million Euros from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in the ongoing month of August, which is part of 750 million Euros loan. Similarly, the country will also avail the trade facility of $150 million for import of fertilizer and Petroleum products this month. The Islamic Development Bank had agreed to the loan and the trade facility in a meeting between the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali, and Pakistan’s Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in Jeddah last week. Pakistan will also receive $500 million from Asian Development Bank and $500 million from World Bank in the second half (January-June) of the ongoing financial year 2013-14. Moreover, Pakistan is expecting to receive $3.4 billion from IMF during the current financial year. The loans will help building the foreign exchange reserves, which are currently around $10.25 billion.

Emaan Islamic Banking, a division of Silkbank Limited, has been launched and is now available in 10 branches in 8 cities including Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad. M. A. Mannan, Executive Director at Silkbank, said that currently, the Islamic Banking Division offers a complete suite of liability based products and services including Current Account, Savings Account, Term Deposit (01 Month to 05 Years), Online Banking, 24/7 Phone Banking, Internet Banking, Visa Debit Card, Utility Bills Payment Service and Corporate Banking solutions including Musharka, Murabaha, Diminishing Musharka and Import Murabaha. Silkbank plans to open more Emaan Islamic Banking branches throughout the country and offer more products, both in Retail and Consumer Banking in Pakistan.

Islamic insurance providers in the UAE are struggling to generate surpluses amid cut-throat competition and overcapacity, Standard & Poor's warned in its report. The takaful industry must compete directly with conventional insurance companies that benefit from established economies of scale, have longer service track records and have more established distribution mechanisms to the marketplace. According to the report, the sector is now overpopulated with insurers. Insurance companies therefore require considerable capital investment to become established. Insurance companies are the most represented on the UAE stock markets, with 23 of the almost 100 publicly listed companies coming from the sector, but they are also some of the least traded stocks.

Burj Bank has launched an employee driven CSR initiative called “Giving beyond the Workplace Campaign”. As part of the programme, Burj Bank Employees along with the Senior Management team visited the TCF (The Citizen’s Foundation) Qayyumabad campus. Burj Bank members adopted one class each for the day where they spent their time in storytelling, book reading and educating the students about the importance of Earth Day. Moreover, Mr. Ahmed Khizer Khan, President & CEO of Burj Bank also presented a donation cheque from Burj Bank’s Charity Fund to Asaad Ayub Ahmad, President & CEO of TCF. This marked the beginning of a new relationship between the two organizations.

Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited has reported a year end profit before tax of Rs501 million. Furthermore, a 38 per cent deposit growth was achieved in comparison to 2011, taking total deposits to Rs53.11 billion in 2012. DIBPL’s asset base rose by 32% in contrast to 2011 increasing the asset base to Rs63.5 billion in 2012. The Bank’s investments grew substantially by 65% over the year, taking total investments to Rs21.33 billion.DIBPL opened 25 new branches in 2012, increasing the total branch network to 100 in 35 cities. The Bank added over 20,000 more customers in 2012, taking full customer base to over 100,000.

The company owning the "Chaichana Halal" beef-noodle franchise has filed a lawsuit against Islamic Bank of Thailand manager Thanin Angsuwarangsi at Bangkok's Ratchadapisek Criminal Court yesterday. This was after the manager allegedly failed to approve loans for its franchisees, despite signing a previous MoU agreeing to loan cash to 50,000 franchise applicants over five years. Chana Rattanapakdi, executive of Tha Pisut International that owns the franchise business, accused Thanin of abusing his authority and causing damage to others according to the Criminal Code's Article 157. The court will hear the case on July 15 at 1.30pm.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf emphasized the close relations between Bahrain and his country and praised the Gulf Finance House Bahrain for doing well financially. Moreover, he drew the attention of Esam Yousif Janahi, Chairman and Founder of Gulf Finance House, to huge investment potential in Pakistan and expressed the need to invest in energy. He said that there were a good wind corridor, hydel potential and coal reserves. Jahani said that his company was examining the possibility of investing in energy sector in Pakistan. He further said that the investment policies of Pakistan were conducive and attractive for foreign investors because of rewarding returns on investments.

The Takaful industry is growing but also facing certain challenges which include issues regarding re-Takaful, regulatory challenges, competition and lack of human capital. In order to overcome all these challenges and issues, Al Huda CIBE established a Takaful Consultancy Wing with consultant Captain Jamil Akhtar Khan. Khan has expertise on Takaful regulatory issues, establishment of Takaful companies and other related departments. Takaful Consultancy Wing will be an independent institution which will provide its services to other organizations for the establishment of new Takaful companies, research, advisory, training, re-Takaful, Shariah guidance and other Takaful related matters.

Former executives of the Islamic Bank of Thailand who did not adequately pay attention to cash flow, collateral value and monitoring, are to be blamed for the high amount of bad dept at IBank, according to its new president Thanin Angsurarangsit. Non-performing loans at IBank currently amount to Bt39 billion, or about 30 per cent of outstanding loans. Moreover, the Finance Ministry is investigating possible corruption at IBank. The bank will try to maintain its lending at Bt120 billion this year. New lending to large corporates will be reduced as the bank focuses on retail clients who are Muslims.

BankIslami Pakistan Limited on Tuesday joined the Global Trade Finance Programme, which promotes trade in emerging markets by supporting the flow of goods and services. The programme was established by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), who will support BankIslami’s trade finance business by providing partial or full guarantees for individual trade transactions. Since the trade finance programme’s inception in Pakistan in 2006, IFC has provided more than 3,500 guarantees worth $1.74 billion to financial institutions.

In Lahore, a seminar for the worldwide poverty day is organised. Global topics around the issue of poverty and its solution possibilities were discussed. Experts from microfinance, Islamic microfinance and the banking sector took part.

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Bank Burj's results for the first half of 2012 (until June 30th) are out. The bank registeres a profit before tax as high as Rs147 million. The results are a reflection of a turnaround of Burj Bank which caused continuous earning for the first two quarters of the year. The growth of the bank's total deposits lies at 57% reaching Rs 32b for the period. In spite of political and economical problems, the bank demonstrated excellent half yearly performance.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) shall cooperate in the promoting of Islamic finance in common developing member countries. The cooperation should be based on joint technical assistance and/or policy-based work in member countries.

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The date for the Global Islamic Microfinance Forum on Islamic Microfinance is set: 8th December, 2012. Representatives from over 30 countries will gather in the UAE for the forum in order to exchange experience and expertise. The forum aims to introduce Islamic Microfinance to the global public and to present it as an effective tool for poverty alleviation and social development. Furthermore, it will try to develop Islamic Microfinance internationally and to have a dialogue with International Donor/Development agencies and corporate entities for sustainable development.

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Faysal Asset Management Limited (FAML) has introduced Faysal Asset Allocation Funds for its customers.