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According to Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) Chairman, Sakir Ercan Gül, Bank Asya's shareholders need to wait until the end of the bank's liquidation process to receive their remaining funds. Gül said the process of paying deposits would not be immediately initiated and the finalization of the liquidation process would be delayed. The law regarding deposits grants a three-month period for payments, which will expire this month. There are nearly TL 2 billion ($653 million) worth of deposits in the bank, including TL 950 million worth of insured deposits. If the bank has any remaining funds after the liquidation process, these will be distributed to the bank's shareholders in accordance with the percentage of their shares. According to Gül, the bank is now hovering between bankruptcy and liquidation.

The Financial Inclusion and Islamic Finance Forum is scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur between the 11th and 16th of November. The event is hosted by the IFSB, a Malaysia-based standard-setting organization that issues guiding principles for banking, capital markets and the insurance sectors. The other host is the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance, a university also based in Malaysia and centered around the Islamic finance industry. The standard fees to attend are USD 1,200 if registering by November 2, 2016, and USD 1,500 if registering after.

In #Pakistan Chair­man of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance Senator Saleem Mandvi­walla has strongly criticized the issuance of $1 billion sukuk. He said that the hurried decision was an act of im­­maturity by the government and it was expected that the rates would be high. Senator Mandviwalla is surprised that Eurobonds which carry sovereign guarantees were sold at 8.25pc interest rate and sukuk, which are guaranteed by assets, are sold at 5.5pc. He said that the federal government also blamed the higher rate on Pak-India border tensions. He added that it would have been better to wait with the issuance for a more suitable time.

A recent study on Islamic microfinance by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), Yale University and Tameweelcom found less price sensitivity by some consumers and a lot of focus on simplicity in product offerings and Shariah compliance. Consumers of financial products are in general price sensitive and as costs increase, demand goes down. It turned out that about 30% of Muslims always prefer a Shariah-compliant product with little price sensitivity. When given the option to choose between Islamic and conventional banking products, consumers are less likely to make a choice than if presented with only one of the products. The authors attribute this finding to the 'paradox of choice'. If a conventional bank thinks they can maintain market share by starting an Islamic window to offer Islamic products alongside conventional products, they may end up turning off consumers.

Al Rajhi Capital has announced the closing of a private placement subscription for the Al Rajhi European Real Estate Fund after raising SR581 million ($155 million) in equity. The five-year closed-ended fund will invest in income generating properties, such as warehouses occupied by solid tenants with long-term leases. The main geographic focus of the fund will be Western Europe. Gaurav Shah, CEO of Al Rajhi Capital, said that this fund marked the commencement of the global expansion of the company's real estate investment platform. Al Rajhi Capital has managed over $1 billion in transactions across the logistics and community retail space and recently successfully exited a $360 million fund focused on investing in KSA and UAE logistics.

In the #Philippines Golden Haven Memorial Park and Cemex Philippines are now among the Shariah-compliant securities listed locally. Golden Haven and Cemex were among the 56 listed securities that made it to the Shariah list. Chief Operating Officer of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Roel A. Refran, said the PSE continues to provide a list of Shariah-compliant securities to cater to the needs of Islamic investors. He noted that by highlighting listed firms that adhere to the standards of Shariah law, PSE hopes to open investment opportunities in the country to Islamic funds.

SEDCO Capital announced the acquisition of seven real estate assets over the past 19 months, bolstering the firm’s realty portfolio in Saudi Arabia. The purchased assets include the Hyper Panda retail in Dammam, Olya School in Riyadh, Dar Al Baraa School in Riyadh, an Extra Store in Dammam, Alhamra Plaza retail strip outlet in Riyadh and Irgah Plaza retail strip outlet in Riyadh. The acquisitions collectively total SR473 million in purchase price for approximately 88,000 sqm of built up area. According to Hasan Al-Jabri, CEO of SEDCO Capital, the total assets under management reach the $5.2 billion mark and clearly show clients' confidence in SEDCO.

The third quarter of 2016 saw Bank Negara Malaysia publish policy documents on ijarah, hibah, qard and wadi'ah. The Central Bank of Bahrain launched a consultation on a proposed sharia governance module and the Indonesian government launched a 10-year Islamic finance master plan. The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and the Arab Monetary Fund signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a framework to promote initiatives that foster the development of the Islamic finance sector in the Arab region. The MoU is for an initial period of three years.

Sabana Shariah Compliant REIT is the world’s first real estate investment trust that has adopted the standard of Shari’ah compliance. Sabana REIT currently has a portfolio of 21 industrial buildings that are all found in Singapore. Most of the properties are also located in close proximity to the principal industrial zones in the island, such as Penjuru and Tai Seng. For perspective, the SPDR STI ETF, an exchange-traded fund that mimics the fundamentals of the Straits Times Index, has a yield of 3.2%. In its latest quarterly earnings report Sabana REIT reported a 10.9% year-on-year decline in gross revenue and a 31.1% decline in income available for distribution.

Creditors of Kuwait's debt-laden Investment Dar are forming a team to restructure 813 million dinars ($2.7 billion) in debt. Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank, the Islamic investment company's largest creditor, is taking charge of forming the committee, which will be responsible for representing the roughly 70 to 80 creditors in negotiations with Investment Dar. Any deal remains complicated by a rise in the number of legal cases against Investment Dar. Another complication is that Investment Dar has been in legal dispute with Commercial Bank of Kuwait over part of its nearly 20% stake in Kuwait's Boubyan Bank, which is one of the assets it aims to hand over to creditors.

Nigeria's central bank has set commercial banks' investment in Islamic bonds issued by state governments to 10% of the total amount on offer and fixed a maximum tenor of 10 years for the bonds. The central bank said it considered the need to issue the guidelines to enhance the quality of sukuk instruments and to grant liquidity status at its discount window as well as for banks' liquidity ratio. Nigeria is working out details for issuing a debut sovereign sukuk and also planning to sell Eurobond to raise $1 billion this year. The regulator assigned a weight of 20% for capital adequacy for banks' investment in sukuk and a weight of 50% for Islamic bonds that do not qualify as liquid assets.

EthisCrowd has been recognized as the Best Islamic Crowdfunding Platform for its social impact real estate campaigns in Indonesia. The Singapore-based platform received the award at the 6th Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) 2016 in Jakarta. EthisCrowd said the inclusion of the crowdfunding category symbolized the growth and adoption of Islamic Crowdfunding. The platform’s community now claims 17,000 registered members who have invested in projects to build 5,000 houses for the needy in Indonesia. Ronald Yusuf Wijaya, EthisCrowd’s head of Indonesian operations, stated that affordable housing projects are commercially viable and can provide excellent returns for the crowd. EthisCrowd uses Mudarabah contracts to formalize rights to profit or revenue sharing for investors, directly with real estate developers and contractors. There is no capital guarantee or fixed interest rates for investors.

L’Executive MBA en finance islamique a été lancé par l’Université Internationale de Casablanca (UIC) en partenariat avec et Al Maali Consulting Groupe (ACG), filiale d’Al Maali Consulting Group. Ce MBA permettra aux cadres et managers de la finance, particulièrement du secteur bancaire, d’être former aux métiers de la banque, de la finance, de l’assurance et de la gestion d’actifs. Notons que la formation est assurée pendant les week-ends, répartie sur 12 mois. Elle comprend des séminaires animés par des experts nationaux et internationaux, des dirigeants d’entreprise et des influenceurs. Mais aussi des projets intégrés en relation avec les business stratégiques de la finance islamique; des séances de coaching et d’encadrement des projets professionnels.

The re-entry of #Pakistan into the international Islamic bond market after a gap of two years with the issuance of one billion dollars Sukuk will help the country bolster its external account position. According to analyst Saad Hashemy at Topline Securities, Pakistan's ability to raise funds from the global financial markets at the historic low rates shows investors' optimism about the economic prospects. The government raised $1.0 billion through the issuance of five-year dollar-denominated Sukuk at the historic low rate of 5.5%. The investors across the world showed interest in parking around $2.4 billion in the bonds. Pakistan’s credit rating has remained stable or improved during the last few years. International credit rating agencies Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) rated Pakistan as B3 (stable), B (stable) and B (positive), respectively in their last ratings.

The State Bank of #Pakistan (SBP) is pursuing a three-pronged strategy to achieve the goal of 50% financial inclusion by the year 2020. According to Saeed Ahmed, deputy governor of the central bank, twenty million households need microfinance in Pakistan. The forum, organised by Shamrock Conferences International was held to strive for the expansion of financial services. Dr Mohammad Amjad Saqib, chairman of Akhuwat Foundation, delivered the keynote address and stressed the importance of microfinance. Speakers agreed that the microfinance specialists must create a sustainable model by offering competitive microfinance products, reducing costs and expanding their outreach.

According to The World Bank, less than 20% of Muslims use conventional banking worldwide, in spite of the ever growing number of Islamic financial products. The bank's Vice President and Treasurer, Arunma Oteh, said this in Washington during the World Bank High Level Seminar on Islamic Finance. Ms. Oteh said that the huge financial gap that exist in the Muslim world could not be bridged and the lack of trust of financial service providers was a reason for the disparity. She added that Islamic finance was a tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Islamic investors applying the ethical and quantitative measures in their investment decisions.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed GFH Financial Group’s (GFH) Short-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at "B" and revised its outlook upward from stable to Positive with a Long-term IDR at "B-". The positive outlook reflects the steps GFH’s management have taken to strengthen its balance sheet by paying down debt, reshaping the business model with focus on income-generating investments, and consequent improvement of profitability. GFH said it believes that this upward revision of the outlook is the result of its new strategy and in developing new recurring steams of income through income yielding investments.

Vnesheconombank, Sberbank and Tatfondbank are going to take part in the 23rdWorld Islamic Banking Conference in Bahrain from 5 to 7 of December 2016. The three banks are working on launching Islamic finance products to get access to the investors from the Gulf countries and Southeast Asia. According to Linar Yakupov, head of the Association of Regional Investment Agencies of the Russian Federation, there is growing interest from other 20 Russian banks. However, the current legislation system of Russia complicates the progress. It forbids banks from engaging in commercial activities, so they can operate only a limited range of assets.

The Central Bank of #Jordan (CBJ) announced it will release the first sovereign issue of Islamic sukuk to fund the government's special purpose vehicle projects. The CBJ said the value of the new issue is JD34 million for a five-year term, to be issued on October 17, 2016 and due on October 17, 2021. The CBJ expected these sukuks' revenues to stand at 3%, with paying revenues, after adding a percentage of the sukuk value, via 10 equal payments on April 17 and October 17 of each year. The issuance is released in cooperation between the government, Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector. The CBJ is the issuance manager, while the Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank is the secretary of the issuance.

Underprivileged citizens today live in an economy that exposes them to certain risks, like unpredictable incomes and high daily expenses. With around 70% of the population still excluded, Indonesia has taken major leaps to improve the situation. Since the preceding high-level talks in 2010, Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) have focused on how to provide better access to financial services. The disproportional knowledge between the banking industry and the population in general is quite severe, and a product to address the specific needs of the economically active poor and micro entrepreneurs is essential. Moreover, the challenges of financial inclusion do not stop when formal financial services are provided. It goes beyond service provision to educating and empowering the community to understand finance. Financial inclusion cannot be achieved through isolated efforts. Collaboration between private companies, the government and civil society is necessary.