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Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, will honor the invitations of the presidents of the Republics of Benin, Togo, Sierra-Leone, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Niger.
The delegation that will attend him contains: the Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs, Ambassador Hameed Opeloyeru; the Director, African Affairs, Ambassador Yahaya Lawal and a host of senior officials from the General Secretariat.

Last week Dubai’s Islamic bonds had the smallest results in six months.
The rate fell to a record low of 4.6 percent on May 19. The average yield of Gulf sukuk was unchanged last week at 4.55 percent altough the yields on Bahrain’s government bond dropped. It couldn't have been a more poorly moment because the investors reckoned on the Emirates as being a safe area.

Bahrain has inovated the modern Islamic finance industry in the region, as its history on Islamic finance goes back to more than 40 years.
Khalid Hamad, Executive Director of Banking Supervision at the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), that their was to introduce new concepts and to formulate rules and standards for Shariah-compliant financial transactions.
Khalid Hamad, while commenting on the AAOIFI Annual Shariah Conference which opens on Monday in Bahrain, undelined the fact that the CBB has always been supporting AAOIFI and its conference as part of its commitment to the industry.

It appears that top shareholders of Indonesia's PT Bank Muamalat is trying to sell at least a 51 percent stake in the unlisted Islamic lender, in a deal that may be valued at about $300 million. Bank Muamalat confirmed the sale process. Bloomberg states that the deal may value the bank at $600 million.
Although Chinese Banking Corp had also looked at the bank in the first round, it seems that they are no longer interested.

Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group, visited together with members of the executive management of the Group the site of the Group Headquarter in Bahrain Bay. A detailed explanation of construction works was given to him.
Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif stated his content for what he has seen. He added his delight of the great efforts that are made for the construction of this distinctive and unique of its kind architectural edifice, which is estimated to cost about U.S. $ 100 million.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) conducted a roadshow in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. This is part of a resource mobilization plan.
The roadshow began in the UAE and reached London where the bank has successfully priced, $750 million, 5-year, Trust Certificates (sukuk) issued at par with a 2.35 percent semi-annual profit rate under its $3.5 billion Trust Certificate Issuance Program.

Alfalah Consulting is the organizer of the KL Conference on Islamic Wealth Management 2011, that is going to take place on July 6, extending over two days.
The conference will expand subjects as key principles and avenues of Islamic wealth management, including Islamic wealth creation, accumulation, protection, distribution and purification in the wealth management cycle

Doha Bank is not going to fire any employees impacted by the Qatar central bank's ban on conventional banks engaging in Islamic finance.
Raghavan Seetharaman, chief executive , added that excess staff has already been deployed to its conventional operations.

Amana Takaful will launch Sri Lanka’s first Sharia’h compliant unit linked Insurance Plan. . The product is branded “Amana Takaful Prosper” and is the first of its kind. The customer will be able to obtain a Takaful (insurance) cover as well as enjoy a choice of Sharia’h compliant investment options.
Reyaz Jeffrey, General Manager/ Chief Executive Officer, Amana Takaful Life, stated that this option was right for all Sri Lankans because it's a part of the expansion plans of product offerings in the backdrop of a peaceful environment and apt economic conditions.

Barwa Bank and National Petroleum Services Group (NPS) made an agreement to refinance an existing syndication and support its expansion and working capital. All this will be worth QR529m.
NPS group provides drilling and well services to customers in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the Middle East, North Africa, Far East, and Europe.
Its state-of-the-art equipment and sectorial services are embracing Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Libya, and Iraq.

It appears that Malaysia is going to choose Maybank Investment Bank Bhd, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd and HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd to advise on a global Islamic sovereign bond to raise more than US$1 billion. An anonimous source told that this could start even next month.
The government seems to be arranging a 10-year dollar-denominated sukuk, in its second sovereign sale of Shariah-compliant debt in a year.

The Governor of Bank of Thailand (BoT), Prasarn Trairatvorakul, suggested to the government to consider categorising credit card debtors for refinancing by state-owned banks with caution to prevent a rise in problem debts.
But the problem is that Thailand's banks must have efficient tools to monitor and categorise credit card debtors. Otherwise, it might lead to an increase in non-performing loans.

It seems that HSBC Middle East is going to meet investors in Asia and Europe for a potential sukuk issue. The meetings will take place in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and London.

Economists and Asian leaders pointed out that in order not to shock financially and environmentally Asia’s poorest, basic social protections are needed. They think that the key to helping Asia’s poorest lift themselves out of poverty is increased spending on social programs.
United Nations economists stated that government-funded social protections such as universal education, basic health care and job programs could provide a critical safety net for the millions of impoverished Asians who are most vulnerable to rising food prices and environmental calamities.

The general view of the fact that "returns are usually sacrificed in the name of doing good" is in process of being changed by a report titled Impact Investing in Emerging Markets, by the consultancy Responsible Research.
The report enlightened the fact that this return is comparable with, if not better than, expectations on emerging market indexes globally.
WillowTree Impact Investors, a private equity company that recently launched in Dubai, tries to take advantage of the situation by beliving that it is the first private equity company in Dubai that invests in a socially responsible manner.

Lee Khee Joo, the Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme (FSTEP)'s head, underlined the fact that human capital was an essential enabler for the financial services sector as the industry required highly-qualified people to continue innovating and raising standards.
FSTEP trains and prepares highly-calibre graduates for employment in the finance sector throughout the entire year.
Lee stated that the industry will be challenged in overcoming the talent shortage, specifically in the Islamic finance sector. He added that Malaysian financial institutions would also benefit from growing business relationships between Malaysia and China as well as India.

It seems that Malaysia will plan a 10- year dollar-denominated Islamic bond, this being its second sovereign sale of Shariah-compliant debt in a year.
The anonimous sources also stated that three local investment banks submitted pitches proposing a size of $500 million to $1.7 billion.

Mohammed Abdullah, CEO of Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB), stated that the bank will issue a global dollar-denominated Sukuk that will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The size of the issue is yet to be decided as they are waiting for market response after the investor road show which is taking place in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

According to two bank sources, HSBC Holdings and Deutsche Bank were picked for a potential dollar-denominated bond issue by Saudi Electricity Co.
They couldn't say when this will happen.

Ebrahim Fayez Al Shamsi, the chief executive of Emirates Islamic Bank, has resigned. His replacement will be deputy chief executive Abdullah Showaiter. Faisal Aqil, general manager of retail banking, will be the new deputy CEO.
Emirates Islamic and ENBD didn't want to comment.