IslamicFinance.de

Norton Rose Seminar Documentation

Making Their Mark: Women Working in the Middle Eastern Financial
Industry

OECD: Women’s Access to Finance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

Women’s Empowerment through Islamic Microfinance in Egypt

IDB Prize for Women’s Contribution to Development: PROMOTING WOMEN’S ROLE IN FINANCE AND ECONOMY

CALL FOR PAPERS - Islamic capital markets, Deadline: Submission of Abstract: March 15, 2012
Islamic Research and Training Istitute – Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Islamic capital markets are to become an important part of the Islamic financial system. While new products are steadily coming into the market and the Islamic investment instrument are growing, Islamic capital markets still constitute a very small niche. For a discernible impact on the investment promotion, market stability, and equitable socio-economic development there is a growing need to accelerate the process of product development, to create conducive regulatory environment and to improve the market practices. This task requires development of new human capital and knowledge base.

With this larger objective, the immediate focus of this conference is on three issues:
• Design and use of Islamic financial products for Islamic capital markets.
• Identification of the needs for and the implications of market regulations for development of Islamic capital market.

Islamic Finance and Development, March 24-25, 2012, Austin Hall

Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

The Tenth Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance, hosted by Harvard Law School’s Islamic Finance Project, will be held at Austin Hall, Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 24 and 25, 2012. The theme of the conference will be “Islamic Finance and Development.”

The Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance provides a venue for the critical and objective examination of the purposes, theory, practice, structure, and institutions of the rapidly developing field of Islamic finance. Continuing in this direction, the Tenth Forum sets the evolution of the Islamic financial industry within the context of the economic and political development of Muslim majority markets. The Forum will critically examine traditional frameworks under which Islamic Finance has developed as well as the new challenges raised by recent events, including the global financial crisis and the “Arab Spring” movements in the Middle East.

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In its 2012 Islamic Wealth Management Report illustrated by masterpieces of Islamic calligraphy, by the Chinese Muslim master Hajji Noordeen, deals with the theme “The path to corporate transformation – converting a company to Islam”.

Bank Sarasin reviews the complexities of converting a business to Islam, a topic which is rarely discussed or written about. Conversion is complicated by the need to address every aspect of a business, the lack of broadly accepted standards and regulations, and differences in the Muslim world itself. The Report, released today, is the Bank’s third on Islamic Wealth Management.

Converting a business to Islam can increase the value of a company by 18-25% due to the scarcity of genuine Islamic investments. But the conversion process is arduous, extending from the design to distribution and beyond, to how the company spends its profits. As Sarasin notes, the market potential is massive, with the global Muslim population expected to increase by 26% to 2030, to 2.2 billion, rivalling China and India in terms of market size.

Gatehouse Bank based in London, has surpassed the USD half billion mark in real estate investment acquisitions, on behalf of its GCC investors. This was succeeded after the acquisition of a multi-million dollar US student property portfolio, "The Republic at Denton" and "The Republic at Lubbock" in Texas, USA providing investors a net cash yield of 7.0% per annum and a projected IRR of 9.0% over a hold period of five years.
The newly built, multi-million dollar developed properties were obtained in partnership with US-based student housing specialty operator, The Scion Group LLC.

Taking advantage of the situation emerging out of the economic crisis in Eurozone and countries like United States, India should adopt the Islamic Finance System to pump-in investments from the Middle East. This interest-free and more inclusive system will in turn accelerate the financial inclusion of the Indian Muslims.
Dr Shariq Nisar, Director of Research and Operations of India’s premier shariah advisory firm TASIS and one of the senior most professionals of Islamic Finance in India, was in Malegaon to address a seminar on "Prospects of Islamic Finance in India".
Pointing at the demands in the country of reliable and committed investors in stock market, and banking and insurance sectors, he added that while China and the Middle East are the two areas in the world where surplus funds more than their requirements are generated, the Arab world doesn't have such problems.

Gatehouse Bank delivered successfully a real estate realized investment in the sale of VA Oceanside Clinic for $54.5 million. The medical facility is placed near San Deigo, California, USA.
The statement was given by Fahed Boodai, Chairman of Gatehouse Bank. The chairman added that the property is a specialized medical clinic leased to and operated by the US Department of Veteran Affairs for a period of 20 years, and has been generating an annual return of 7% that is distributed to shareholders on a monthly basis.

Dear Reader,

The last weeks we have read about criticism in regard to the Sharia compliance of the Sukuk program of the investment bank Goldman Sachs:

< Mohammed Khnifer reveals, after examining the offer circular thoroughly, three possible flaws in the overall structure.
1- Strong indication from the proposed structure and the prospectus as well that the sukuk is not, as they claim, Murabaha, but a Reverse Tawarruq.
2- Strong indication that Goldman will be using, eventually, the proceeds to fund its conventional activities.
3- The so called Murabaha sukuk is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE). There are some concernes on how the ISE will make sure that the securities will be traded at par value.>>

http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/3155

Some remarks to this discussion:

The 1st Ernst & Young World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report 2011 presented at the 18th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference stated that Islamic banking assets with commercial banks globally will reach US$1.1 trillion in 2012, a significant jump of 33% from their 2010 level of US$826 billion. In the MENA region, Islamic banking assets increased to US$416 billion in 2010, representing a five year CAGR of 20% compared to less than 9% for conventional banks. As new geographies open up to Islamic banking, the MENA Islamic banking industry is expected to more than double to US$990 billion by 2015.

Abstract academic paper:

Using a large international sample of 35 developed and emerging markets, we analyze
whether Islamic indices exhibit a different performance to conventional benchmarks. While there is no compelling evidence of performance differences in robust Sharpe ratio tests and after controlling for market risk, we find a significantly positive four-factor alpha for the aggregate developed markets region. This outperformance stems, however, mainly from the U.S. and is largely attributable to the exclusion of financial stocks in Sharia-screened portfolios. As the extensive downturn of financials is related to the recent financial crisis, we do not argue that this outperformance will continue over time. The style analysis reveals that

Islamic indices invest mainly in growth stocks and positive momentum stocks. This, for a passive portfolio intriguing result can, however, be explained by the strong sector allocation towards energy firms and their strong momentum characteristic during the sample period.

Although UM Financial Inc went into receivership back in October, the consequences of the bankruptcy are beginning to be noticed only now.
Besides the fact that the case risk is giving a bad name to sharia-compliant finance in North America, it also poses a series of legal hurdles that could have as a result to mortgage holders the losing of their homes.
Since the use of interest is forbidden in Islam, sharia-compliant mortgages are organized so that lender and homebuyer share the costs of purchasing a home. Instead of paying interest, homeowners preffer to rent the property from the lender while gradually purchasing the outstanding share of their house.

The prime theme of this event will be the impact of the recent rapid changes on the
Islamic finance sector in all pertinent aspects. The Conference will consider the
spectacular political and socio-economic developments that we have been witnessing and
their probable effects on the performance and future position of Islamic financial
institutions (IFI’s), the regulatory set-ups, and popularity of Islamic products being
offered to the public, governments and business firms.

The Conference is being organised by Emerald Group Publishing, the world’s leading
scholarly publisher of journals and books on business and management. Over 220
academic journals are currently published by Emerald, covering some 24 managerial
disciplines, in addition to a strong and growing presence in other related fields such as
LIS, social sciences, and engineering.

This Conference follows on the success of the Global Islamic Marketing Conference held
in Dubai over the period 20-22 March 2011, organised by Emerald in association with the
United Arab Emirates University.

Conference Objective

The chief objective of the forthcoming Conference is to assess the future of this sector,

UNESCO works in education, the sciences, culture and communication and information. Recently it lost a substantial portion of funding as the newspapers reported (see for details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15527534 ). It is worth considering how to support the UNESCO and their goals:

"UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’S mission and activities.

The broad goals and concrete objectives of the international community – as set out in the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – underpin all UNESCO’s strategies and activities. Thus UNESCO’s unique competencies in education, the sciences, culture and communication and information contribute towards the realization of those goals.

Global leaders point way to economic recovery at UN summit

Gordon Brown, Mary Robinson and global CEOs call for sustainable financial sector reform

Washington D.C., 20 October 2011 – With economic recovery topping the United States and global political agenda, a group of CEOs, major investors and bankers together with former United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President of Ireland Mary Robinson called for a far-reaching reform of the global financial system at a summit which ended in Washington D.C. today.

Amid a growing wave of protests highlighting economic concerns in countries from the US to the UK, Japan and Greece, more than 500 senior finance executives and policy-makers from around the world met at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative Global Roundtable (UNEP FI) summit to find sustainable solutions to tackle the drivers of market volatility and address the deepening rift between the rich and the poor.

IdealRatings® Islamic Investor™ is the only iPhone application that tells you if a stock is Shariah compliant or not, gives you a detailed report explaining why, and alerts you if it changes status, it is designed for personal use by individual investors.

IdealRatings® is the most trusted provider of accurate, and timely, Islamic Finance information. Most Islamic index providers, and financial institutions in 18 countries rely on IdealRatings to create and manage their Islamic,Shariah compliant, products. Our data is available directly, or on Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg terminals.

Features:

-Find out, instantly, if a stock in your local market is Shariah compliant or not.
-Learn why by reading a detailed report.
-Explore Shariah compliant stocks from the Top Stocks and Featured sections.
-Track the compliance of your favorite stocks.
-Receive an alert if a stock changes compliance status.
-Share your findings with your friends and colleagues.

Klaus Schwab, executive chairman and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), has the strong oppinion that it is time for the Middle East to grasp a more holistic, inclusive and qualitative approach to economic development. He stated that the events in this region over the past 10 months have no precedent and have developed a new regional order that is still evolving.

He also reminded that the next World Economic Forum on Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2012.

Randall & Quilter has accepted to buy Principle Insurance for £4.275m cash. Principle Insurance was launched and was given Financial Services Authority approval in 2008 with the purpose of meeting the motor and home insurance needs of the country's Muslim population as the only Shariah-compliant insurance provider in Britain at the time.
It has been in run-off since October 2009. Randall & Quilter has a portfolio of nine insurance companies in run-off, from the UK, US and Europe, with net assets £72.2m beginning with 30 June 2011.

The hosts of the 2nd Annual Islamic Finance Forum were US-Qatar Business Council and the Bilateral US-Arab Chamber of Commerce. They presented much-needed insights into the growing use of Islamic financing and Shariah-compliant business contacts in the United States.
The forum was held at the George Washington University Law School in Washington DC.
Discussions like the growing trend among state legislatures that try to ban the recognition or practice of Islamic financing and Shariah law, actions that threaten to hinder the growth of Islamic financing opportunities in the US and block US access to billions in Shariah-compliant investments from Middle Eastern countries were heard.

The 2nd Quarter 2011 issue of the Malaysian ICM quarterly bulletin published by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) is now available online at:
http://www.sc.com.my/eng/html/icm/11_2Q_msianicm.pdf

Dear All,

as salamu alaikum wa Ramadan Karim,

May I kindly ask you to consider signing a petition against hunger, which has already more than 3 million signatories:

www.1billionhungry.org/gassner/

The rational behind it is explained on the website with materials, actions and videos; it is a joint initiative of various organisations and inshallah it will help to support the cause.

Let our fasting also lead to feel with those who do not have to eat at Iftar, let us sign all this petition right away and share it with friends.

Wa at taufiq min Allah,

Best regards,

Michael Saleh Gassner