IslamicFinance.de

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, or ADIB, has launched its 97 per cent capital protected BRIC Currencies Notes that provides an opportunity to small or large investors to invest in the four major emerging economies in the world.

This rating reflects IIRA's opinion that JIB conforms to very high level of standards of Shari'ah requirements in all aspects of Shari'ah quality analysis.
Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) has maintained its Shari'ah Quality Rating of AA (SQR) to Jordan Islamic Bank (JIB).
The rating maintained by IIRA is supported by the fact that JIB's Shari'ah Supervisory Board (SSB) consists of four highly qualified and experienced Shari'ah scholars who hold regular meetings and considers wide-ranging issues.

Mauritius's first Islamic bank will be operational by the end of the first quarter of 2011.
Mauritius is seeking to tap into the $1 trillion Islamic finance industry, and the central bank also plans to offer sharia-compliant short-term liquidity tools.

Islamic banks—financial institutions based on Islamic law—in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have made impressive gains against the region’s conventional banks in recent years. However,
the need for consolidation in this industry is increasing as the economic crisis continues to hamper growth and the market becomes more crowded

The downgrade of the BFSR and issuer ratings of Bahrain Islamic Bank reflects
- the difficult market conditions in which Bahraini banks continue to operate;
- the bank's deteriorated asset quality and heightened provisioning needs;
- Bahrain Islamic Bank's weak financial performance stemming from the cost of concentration risks materialising in heavy losses for two consecutive years;
- uncertainties over the bank's ultimate shareholding structure.

Sharia compliant banks will need to significantly improve customer service if they are to compete with mainstream banks.
The poll of 4,000 Gulf residents by Ernst & Young found that, despite strong interest in Islamic finance, customers found banks lacking in transaction speed and service quality.

The banking sector in Nigeria has hardly had time to digest the "Guidelines on Shariah Governance for Non-interest Financial Institutions in Nigeria" and the "Framework for the Regulation and Supervision of Institutions Offering Non-interest Financial Services in Nigeria" published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Dec. 31, 2010 and Jan. 12 2011. The regulator has already been forced to defend its action of introducing Islamic banking into the country.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is requesting comments on its proposal to revise its criteria for rating banks and, among them, Islamic banks.
The proposed criteria aims to provide additional insight into the way it rates banks, including Islamic banks, as well as enhance ratings comparability across sectors and geography.

Malaysian trustee company Amanah Raya Berhad is joining forces with Fattah Finance and the state-owned Development Bank of Kazakhstan to conduct a feasibility study to establish the second Islamic bank in the CIS country. Their purpose is to submit an application for an Islamic-banking license later this year under new legislation introduced by Kazakhstan in 2009 to facilitate the establishment of Islamic banks and the introduction of Islamic financial products in the country.

Bank Indonesia (BI) has received an approval from the House of Representatives to contribute US$5 million in equity to the newly established International Islamic Liquidity Management (IILM) to support the country’s growing Islamic banking sector.
The IILM would also widen investors’ basis for global debt papers, including global sukuk issuances, and increase Indonesia’s participation in growing the Sharia industry both globally and regionally.

The Philippines’ sole Islamic bank has opened a branch in the Muslim province of Sulu in the region of Mindanao.
The recently opening of Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines is expected to lure locals to open an account and save money instead of keeping them in their houses.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed that all Non-Interest Financial Institutions (NIFIs) desiring to operate in the country to carry out an internal Shariah audit on a periodic basis, to examine and evaluate the extent of compliance with Shariah rules.
The guideline stipulates that a non-interest bank with regional banking authorization shall be entitled to carry on its banking business operations within a minimum of six (6) and a maximum of twelve (12) contiguous states of the federation, lying within not more than two (2) geo-political zones, as well as within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) can play a significant role in the establishment of a joint Islamic bank by the Muslim countries, head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Mines.
Head of the Iranian Committee at the ECO Chamber Alinaqi Khamoushi underlined the key role of ECO in defusing the West-sponsored economic sanctions against Iran.

Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank has recently announced the extension of its Islamic Home Financing Program until the end of March, 2011. This extension takes advantage of the extension of the discount in registration fees and sales tax on property by 50%, according to the amendments on the Jordanian land and property registration laws which is effective until 31/03/2011.
The Bank's decision comes in answer to popular demand of its clients.

The conventional way in which banks offer Shariah-compliant services and likely boost the performance of banks that focus solely on such services will be changed by the new rules for Islamic banking in Qatar released by the Central Bank in late August.
The new regulations, made public on August 29, prohibit conventional banks from allocating more than 10% of issued capital to Islamic banking operations and from opening additional branches for Islamic banking.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. Its capital city is Jakarta, which is located on the island of Java. Since the majority of the population of Indonesia are Muslims, Indonesia can be considered the largest Islamic state in the world in terms of population. The Indonesian economy is classified as a developing economy, and is known as a "Tiger Cub Economy".
This is a reference to the more economically advanced "Asian Tiger Economies" that include Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The relaunch follows a £20million capital injection from founding shareholder Qatar International Islamic Bank allowing the bank to realise product developments, including its flagship HPP product. The intermediary website was redeveloped as part of its overall sales strategy. Intermediaries have been identified as playing a key role.

A court ordered Al Ain A leading Islamic bank to pay a building materials company Dh9.854 million that the bank had deducted from the company’s account without legal cause.
The appealing party, Al Samah Building Material Establishment, filed an appeal against the initial ruling explaining that the bank had refused to issue a statement of the company’s transactions and murabahat (Islamic profits), and asked the court to assign a new expert whose decision would be binding.

Ben Verlong’s thriller “Takiye: Allah’?n Yolunda” a Dutch-Turkish joint production dealt with a major investment scam that lost many people’s life savings and the disappearance of investors along with huge amounts of money. The film starred Erhan Emre as a man who trusts his money in an Islamic investment, convincing those around him to do the same, only to be left empty-handed after the company goes bankrupt with the executives nowhere in sight.

The story is based on a major investment scam, which attracted substantial amounts in Germany from Turkish migrants.

Kuwait's central bank has rejected a request by Islamic lenders to grant them exceptions from liquidity ratio requirements and allow for the withdrawal of excess liquidity. This is the second time the central bank has rejected such a proposal.