IslamicFinance.de

HSBC Securities Services (HSS) together with HSBC Amanah today launched HSBC Amanah Securities Services, a global service for Islamic fund managers.
The Shariah-compliant securities services are available globally to Islamic investment managers and traditional investment managers, managing Islamic funds.

Nigeria wants to establish itself as the African hub for Islamic banking and is working on a regulatory framework to try to emulate the success of the industry in Malaysia.
Nigeria is home to the largest Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa, with around half of its 150 million people members of the Islamic faith. It is also home to one of Africa's fastest growing consumer and corporate banking sectors.

Since the global economic downturn in 2008, Dubai has sought to display signs of financial improvement. And the glitzy sheikhdom of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has begun to demonstrate growth, except in real estate.
Despite the pessimism pervading the market, Dubai launched a Shariah-compliant real estate investment trust (REIT) in November. Emirates REIT, jointly developed by Dubai Islamic Bank and Eiffel Management, a French REIT specialist, joins a number of Shariah-compliant REITs that have been set up Asia and the Middle East over recent months. Governments and Islamic financiers alike hope the new products will spur investment from Muslims and non-Muslims into these regional real estate sectors.

Young working adults can now buy themselves a new home without having to pay anything in down payment.
The My First Home Scheme is launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and will enable them to buy houses costing between RM100,000 and RM220,000 with a repayment period of up to 30 years. The scheme sees the participation of 25 conventional and Islamic financial institutions including major banks like AmBank, CIMB, Hong Leong, Maybank, Public Bank, RHB and Standard Chartered.

Unicorn Investment Bank (Unicorn) announced in a press release on Tuesday its results for the year ended Dec. 31, 2010. The Bank has reported an annual net loss for the first time, reflecting the continuing effects of the uncertainty in the global financial markets.
Total income for 2010 was $12.3 million, down from $96.5 million in 2009. With limited exceptions, the reduction in income was due to a general lowering of deal flows, within a stressed financial and operating environment.

Kuwait Finance House's (KFH) Turkish unit will launch a 500 million US dollar Islamic bond by the end of the year.
Mohammed Al-Omar said the Islamic lender will issue the benchmark Sukuk following the success of Turkey's first Islamic bond offering, from lender Kuveyt Turk in August.
Al-Omar noted that the law is a significant step forward that reveals a great desire by many Turkish companies that have good assets but lack the suitable financing to expand locally and overseas to benefit from this new financing instrument; especially after those companies realized the numerous benefits of Sukuk, which include providing financing through Sukuk while neither hindering projects nor exhausting their budgets.

Jim O'Neill, chairman of the massive Goldman Sachs Asset Management arm, said he believed that the Arab world could emerge as the fifth Bric, joining the booming economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Emerging markets fund manager Charlemagne Capital is launching a new fund to exploit opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) as a result of the political tensions across the region.

The Malaysian government’s recent encouragement of Korean financial institutions to issue “sukuk” instead of ringgit-denominated bonds is part of the country’s aim to foster a strong Islamic financial hub.
They want to develop an Islamic financial market, so they give tax exemptions for bond holders and sukuk holders here.

In line with its five-year strategy to develop products and services that meet the needs of elite clients, Dubai Bank announced the launch of "Royal Banking," a complete wealth management solution for premium customers who seek customised solutions and personalised service across all banking channels.
To qualify as a Royal Banking customer, individuals should maintain an average monthly deposit of AED 500,000 or transfer salaries of AED 50,000 and above to Dubai Bank.

Yields on Indonesia’s Shariah- compliant dollar-denominated bonds dropped to a six-week low as Southeast Asia’s largest economy moved a step closer toward winning an investment-grade rating.
Optimism for a ratings upgrade and inflows from overseas investors avoiding the Middle East are boosting demand for the nation’s sukuk.

Islamic bonds, led by securities in the Arabian Gulf, underperformed emerging-market debt in February as spreading unrest across the Middle East caused the biggest monthly rise in yields since May.
Investors are shunning Middle East assets as protests expanded to Oman, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya, holder of the largest proven oil reserves in Africa. Moody’s Investors Service and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank say Islamic bonds aren’t likely to recover unless demonstrations that have toppled Tunisia’s and Egypt’s rulers and killed hundreds end soon.

State-owned Islamic Bank of Thailand expects to finalise details of its long-delayed Islamic bond in the second quarter.
The planned sale of Islamic bonds worth 5 billion baht ($164 million) has been repeatedly delayed, pending regulations governing the issue of sukuk in Thailand.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded UAE-based Dubai Bank's Individual Rating to 'D/E' from 'D' and maintained it on Rating Watch Negative (RWN).
At the same time, Fitch affirmed Dubai Bank's Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BBB-', Short-term IDR at 'F3', Support Rating at '2' and Support Rating Floor at 'BBB-'. The Outlook on the Long-term IDR is Negative. The ratings on Dubai Bank's Sukuk Programme were also affirmed at 'BBB-', although there is no outstanding issuance.

ABC Islamic Bank expects to expand its customer base and develop new products this year as customers' appetite for borrowing returns.
The subsidiary of Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation on Thursday posted a net profit of $2.1 million this year compared to $10.1 million in 2009.

Global sales of Shariah-compliant bonds surged to $2.8bn in the first two months of this year, compared with $676mn in the same period of 2010. This statement was given by Bloomberg.
Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, chief executive officer at Kuala Lumpur-based CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd has the oppinion that the rising yields are deterring potential issuers.

Max Linnington is head of Bloomberg for the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia. He makes a statement about the launch of the company’s new Islamic finance platform.
Bloomberg’s platform is trying to give customers the tools that they need to make the very best investment decisions when it comes to investing in a Sharia-compliant way. Because this community is a little bit disparate, Bloomberg also try to connect the community together.

Saudi King Abdullah’s pledge to increase spending on housing by 55 billion riyals ($15 billion) probably will do little to relieve the country’s home shortage unless it’s coupled with long-delayed changes in mortgage financing laws.
The kingdom’s 86-year-old monarch last week announced plans to spend about 110 billion riyals on programs aimed at boosting housing, education and social welfare. Governments from Jordan to Yemen have offered concessions to quell public discontent after popular uprisings toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt last month and sparked protests across the Middle East and North Africa.

Academics and industry participants in Malaysia are advocating further developments of treasury and money market products, notably via a new exchange initiative. But commodity murabaha structures developed to facilitate liquidity management by banks based on palm oil have attracted criticism from some quarters.
That’s why the Malaysian authorities are pushing ahead with efforts to make the country a world-leading Islamic financial hub. One of its latest initiatives has been to establish interbank money market instruments based on palm oil to satisfy the treasury needs of Islamic financial institutions.

The UAE will not follow Qatar in banning conventional banks from operating Islamic services, as its financial system has a different legal framework. Conventional banks will remain free to offer Sharia-compliant banking products. That is the statement of the Central Bank Governor, Sultan al Suwaidi.
Islamic finance banks based in the Dubai International Financial Centre are required to operate within AAOIFI guidelines.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) made an announcement that it had closed Dh250 million syndicated Islamic financing deal for Emirates National Factory for Plastic Industries (ENPI).
ENPI is majority owned by Qatar First Investment Bank (QFIB).