IslamicFinance.de

Nearly 17 years after its entry into Pakistan’s financial space, Islamic financing has grown considerably. Its acceptance has cleared up the initial mist, scepticism and suspicion associated with the concept. The effort to introduce Islamic banking started in early 2002 with the granting of licence to the Meezan Bank. The growth has resulted in five full-fledged Islamic banks namely Meezan Bank, Al-Baraka Bank Pakistan Limited, Dubai Islamic Bank, Bank Islami Pakistan and MCB Islamic Bank. Many conventional banks are also operating Islamic banking branches. However, there is still a low level of awareness about opportunity and economic benefits. Pakistan's present government has decided to initiate a comprehensive plan for the promotion of Islamic banking in the country.

Pakistan's government seeks the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) nod for issuance of fresh Sukuks worth Rs 200 billion. IMF's Review Mission is expected to reach Islamabad on November 28, 2019 to evaluate implementation on targets agreed by the Government of Pakistan for $ 6 billion facility. Minister for Power and Petroleum, Omar Ayub Khan last month stated that expensive power sector loans are being replaced with Sukuk which will lessen the financial impact on the economy. Pakistan's circular debt is about Rs 1.6 trillion and the new sukuk is meant to reduce the stock of this historic circular debt. The issue of sovereign guarantee for fresh Sukuks of Rs 200 billion has been raised with the State Bank of Pakistan. Meezan Bank, Faysal Bank, Bank Islami Pakistan, Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan, MCD Islamic Bank and Al Baraka Bank Pakistan are the mandated lead arrangers.

The federal government of Pakistan has decided to initiate a comprehensive plan for the promotion of Islamic banking in the country. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance chaired by Asad Umar announced that the State Bank of Pakistan was in the process of formulating a seven-year plan and a comprehensive framework in this regard will be introduced within two months. The SBP officials gave a briefing to the committee about the Eradication of Riba Act, 2019. The chairman advised the standing committee on finance to expedite the work on the bill and constituted a sub-committee, headed by MNA Raza Nasrullah.

The Islamic banking and finance sector in Pakistan continues to be on an upward trajectory, with assets, deposits and the number of branches of Islamic banks all showing solid growth. According to the latest Islamic Banking Bulletin issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on September 13, assets of Pakistan’s Islamic banking industry stood at Rs2,992bn ($19.8bn) by June-end, 2019, a growth of 20.6% as compared to June-end, 2018.

The State Bank of #Pakistan issued an updated Islamic financing facility for the renewable energy projects. The financing under Islamic Financing Facility for Renewable Energy (IFRE) is now available to the customers under three categories. Under the first category, the prospective sponsors are setting up power projects with a capacity ranging from more than 1MW and up to 50MW for their own use, or sell electricity to the national grid or combination of both. The State Bank of Pakistan will make Mudarabah investment in general pool of Participating Islamic Financial Institutions (PIFIs) under IFRE. IFRE shall be effective immediately and financing shall be available for projects up-to June 30, 2022.

Dubai's Emirates NBD has coordinated a $500m Islamic law-compliant syndicated loan for the government of Pakistan. The loan was provided by a consortium of 12 banks and was oversubscribed by more than 40%. The consortium comprised Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Noor Bank, Allied Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank, Samba Financial Group, Bank of Jordan, Habib Bank Limited and Union De Banques Arabes Et Francaises. The loan was organised as a murabaha.

Dr Muhammad Amjad Saqib, the founder of the Islamic micro finance company, Akhuwat, met with Alan Hatfield, executive director for strategy and development at ACCA London headquarters. In Pakistan, micro finance is proving popular amongst the growing SME sector. The country’s SME development authority calculates that nearly 90% of companies are SMEs, most of them operating in the informal sector, so the demand for micro finance is also growing. Akhuwat has opened over 850 branches in 486 cities/towns across Pakistan, enabling over 3.5 Million families to become self-reliant by extending interest-free loans worth more than £400 million. Dr Saqib's latest initiative is called Akhuwat University, which will provide higher education without any tuition fee to support the upward social mobility in the country.

Pakistani fintech startup Tez Financial Services has been selected as one of the winners of 2019’s Inclusive Fintech 50. Tez was the only Pakistani startup to have qualified for the competition. Inclusive Fintech 50 is a competition to help early-stage fintech companies attract capital to benefit the world’s three billion financially underprivileged people. Tez Financial Services is the first fully digital Non-Bank Microfinance Company focused on serving the unbanked and underbanked in Pakistan. The founders of Tez were leading forces in the creation of Tameer Bank, Easypaisa, and CheckIn Solutions.

Pakistan's Federal Government has decided to issue fresh Sukuk worth Rs 200 billion, in addition to earlier Sukuk of Rs 200 billion through the same consortium of Islamic banks aimed at reducing circular debt. The consortium comprising Meezan Bank Limited, Faysal Bank Limited, Bank Islami Pakistan Limited, Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan, MCD Islamic Bank Limited and Al Baraka Bank Pakistan Limited have already submitted their term sheets to the Finance Division. The syndicate of Islamic Banks had also forwarded a tentative term sheet for Rs 100-200 billion which specifies that the facility is subject to availability of suitable assets. The energy sector's circular debt is around Rs 1.5 trillion. According to Minister for Power, Omer Ayub, the government would bring down circular debt to Rs 250 billion by December this year.

Jameel Ahmad, Deputy Governor of State Bank of Pakistan believes that the newly adopted National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) will contribute significantly to the economic growth. He said the central bank and Pakistan's government have a firm resolve to reach the under-served groups. The NFIS would focus on the enhanced targets including Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs), agriculture, housing and Islamic finance on an extended time-line to 2023. By 2023 the NFIS aims to enhance the usage of Digital Payments to 65 million active digital transaction accounts, to increase deposit to 55% of the GDP, to promote SME Finance to 700,000 enterprises, to increase Agricultural Finance disbursements to Rs.1.8 trillion, and serve 6 million farmers through digitalized solutions and to enhance share of Islamic Banking to 25% of the banking industry.

Pakistan’s Bank Alfalah Islamic has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ghandhara Industries Limited (GIL). Under this MoU, Bank Alfalah Islamic and Ghandhara Industries Limited have agreed on a joint campaign to promote “Isuzu D-Max Pickup variants” through Bank Alfalah Islamic’s Auto Finance product. The signing ceremony took place at Bank Alfalah Head Office, Islamic Banking Division in Karachi. The memorandum has been signed by Dr. Muhammad Imran, Group Head Bank Alfalah Islamic Banking Division and Mr. Muhammad Kuli Khan Khattak, DCEO Ghandhara Industries Limited.

Noor Financial Investment announced selling 9 million shares or 0.85% of its equity ownership in Meezan Bank, Pakistan's first and largest Islamic bank. The equity transaction is valued at $5.57 million or KWD 1.68 million. Following this exit transaction, Noor currently owns 39.53% equity in Meezan Bank. The financial impact of this transaction will be a profit of KWD 293,000 that will be registered in Noor's income statements of the third quarter of 2018, in addition to an increase of KWD 648,000 in the shareholders' equity rights. In mid-July, Noor announced selling 27.23 million shares or 2.56% of its equity in Meezan Bank at a value of $15.76 million or KWD 4.77 million.

Pakistan plans to borrow over $4 billion from the Islamic Development Bank to bolster the country's low level of foreign currency reserves. A senior advisor in Islamabad said the paperwork is all in place. Finance minister-in-waiting Asad Umar has previously said that Pakistan must decide by the end of September if it would go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out its economy. He reiterated his stance that Pakistan was examining other options as well as the IMF, including loans from friendly countries or remittances from overseas Pakistanis.

Pakistan is considering to launch dollar-denominated bond and Sukuk bond to tap a favorable response from expatriates in order to tackle the looming economic crisis. Finance minister Asad Umar said the coming government will have to take tough decisions in the first six weeks after coming into power. Asad promised to grant independence to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in order to get reliable official data on various sectors of the economy. He pledged to take action on it in the first 100 days of government. The situation has touched such an alarming position as the current account deficit used to be in the range of $2 billion on per annum basis, which now peaked to $2 billion on monthly basis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has taken a number of measures for the effective regulation of Islamic finance in the country. The SECP has constituted a Shariah Advisory Board, consisting of renowned scholars and has established a dedicated Islamic Finance Department (IFD) to embed Islamic finance in the corporate sector and capital markets. New regulations have been issued under the provisions of the Companies Act. The SECP issued Draft Shariah Governance Regulations, 2018, a comprehensive set of regulations for governance of Shariah-compliant companies, Shariah-compliant securities and Islamic financial institutions. In order to encourage Sukuk issuances, the Sukuk Regulations, 2017, have been notified, and tax neutrality has been provided through an amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance. In February 2018, the SECP adopted three AAOIFI Shariah standards while in April 2018, the SECP issued draft notification for adoption of seven more AAOIFI Shariah Standards.

ABL Asset Management has launched the ABL Islamic Asset Allocation Fund (ABLIAAF), an open-end Shariah Compliant Asset Allocation Scheme. The fund is now open for subscription. ABL Islamic Asset Allocation Fund will operate under the guidelines of Al-Hilal Shariah Advisors Private Limited. The Shariah Supervisory Counsel is headed by Mufti Irshad Ahmad Aijaz, who is a renowned Shariah Scholar. ABLIAAF will invest in Shariah Compliant Equity, Fixed Income, Money Market Instruments and other permitted instruments. ABL Asset Management CEO Alee Khalid Ghaznavi said with this launch the company further expanded its offerings including Income Funds, Money Market Funds, Stock Funds, Fund of Funds, Asset allocation schemes and Pension Funds in both Islamic and Conventional manner.

Kuwait-based Noor Financial Investment Company (NFIC) has sold its stake in the Pakistani Meezan Bank Limited (MEBL), which is worth $16.014 million. A total of 2.49% of the total issued and paid up capital of the bank was sold and shares have been acquired by various foreign institutional investors at purchase price of Rs70 per share. Meezan Bank is planning to raise up to Rs7 billion by issuing Tier 1 Sukuk in the coming few months to shore up its capital adequacy ratio. According to the bank’s annual report for 2017 the capital adequacy ratio of Meezan Bank was at 12.89% last year, whereas its total assets grew 19% to reach Rs781 billion in December 2017, compared to Rs658 billion in 2016.

Noor Financial Investment Company will divest a portion of its 49% stake in Pakistan's Meezan Bank. The company is in preliminary discussions with foreign institutional investors for a proposed divestment of 9.59% of the total issued and paid up capital of Meezan. Noor has been mulling a sale since at least 2013. Meezan Bank is Pakistan’s fastest growing bank, it posted a profit in each year of operation and its net profits grew 13.5% in 2017 to $93 million. Noor’s stake in the bank was valued at $375 million in 2017.

The Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered Al Hilal Shariah Advisors as the first Shariah Advisory company in Pakistan. Al Hilal aims at converting the conventional interest-based economy to the Islamic financial system under the guidance of Shariah Scholars and financial experts. Al Hilal Shariah Advisors provides Shariah Advisory, Shariah audit and training services in the field of Islamic Finance. It is also active in the field of halal food certification. Al Hilal CFA Faraz Younus Bandukda said they were proud to be the first Shariah Advisory Company in Pakistan and hopeful that more companies would now implement Shariah regulations.

For the first time in #Pakistani history, three perfectly healthy and viable banks are simultaneously up for sale. They are Bank Alfalah (BAFL), Meezan Bank (MEBL), and Faysal Bank (FABL). The Gulf Arab investors who initially put up the capital to create these banks have held their positions profitably for decades and are now looking for a suitable exit opportunity. The potential foreign acquirers of these banks would be the most interesting ones, since they are likely to be large foreign financial institutions, extending their presence into the Pakistani market. The most interested potential acquirers, however, are the domestic players, only some of whom have a history of previously owning and operating financial institutions.