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? three-day Financial Literacy Training of Trainers course was organized and held by Silatech - a social enterprise aiming to to increase employment and entrepreneurship among youth in the Middle East and North Africa. 20 instructors from the Sudan Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences (SABFS) took part. After the training, they now can offer a four months long microfinance development program to approximately 1,000 credit officers in Sudan. The materials used in the training were developed by US-based Microfinance Opportunities.

The draft of Dubai Financial Market's 'Standard for Issuing, Acquiring, Trading Sukuk' has been published on DFM's website. Numerous Islamic finance professionals have been invited to counsel and feedback on the comprehensive standard. The consultation period will last until February 28, 2013. At the beginning of March, a hearing session will be held, eventually followed by the issuance itself later the same month. The Standard includes thorough explanations of different types of sukuk. Among them are Sukuk of ownership of tangible assets, Sukuk of usufructs, Sukuk of lease of services, Mudaraba, Musharaka and Salam Sukuk.

Editorial Note:
You can download the paper at: http://www.dfm.ae/Documents/gen/SukukStandards.pdf

• Provide an efficient Shariah Audit service, under the general guidance of the Manager, to all lines of business and the Bank’s operations, in a manner that will accomplish the Bank’s corporate objectives of Sharia Compliance in accordance with the Shariah Supervisory Board guidelines.
• Conducting financial, operational, process, information technology and compliance audit projects.
• Making best use of available information both in planning and executing assignments and working diligently to agreed objectives.

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- Carry the Sharia review for documents, contracts, products, manuals, marketing material, policies and procedures and all other bank documents under the direct supervision of the Manger Sharia Compliance and Audit.
- Maintaining a log system and incoming Sharia queries from different departments and the response of the Manager or the SSB to them.
- Maintaining database and record for all the Fatawa issued by the SSB.
- Organize and maintain the agenda and schedules of the compliance department tasks.
- Assist the head of department in organizing, maintaining the secretariat of the Sharia Supervisory Board.

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On Thursday , Dubai Islamic Bank announced its board's approval of the plans to fully acquire its mortgage unit Tamweel. The bank already holds 58.2% of the stakes. It further intends to make a tender offer to buy all shares off Tamweel's other shareholders. Every shareholder of Tamweel will be offered 10 DIB shares for every 18 Tamweel shares. As soon as the offer is closed, DIB will make an application to the regulator to delist Tamweel from the Dubai Financial Market.

To Review and conduct in-depth analysis of Credit Risk Proposals for FI/ Structure Finance/ Project Finance customers in order to maintain a healthy portfolio as well as to ensure compliance with the Bank Credit Policy.

· Provide full support to the team bankers in meeting client’s requirements and maintaining strong relationship with clients.
· Coordinate Group’s efforts in managing clients’ requirements
· Provide support to the Sector & Product Bankers and the Business Manager in Originating, structuring and executing Advisory deals.
· Liaise with other relevant departments in the bank to ensure completion of transaction to the satisfaction of the client.

Yesterday Qatar Exchange (QE) and Al Rayan Investment made an announcement about the launch of the QE Al Rayan Islamic index. The new index relies on QE listed stocks of minimum free float size and liquidity that are Shariah compliant. Its debut date is set on January 7th 2013. The goal of the index is to support the creation of Shariah-compliant exchange traded fund (ETF) by Al Rayan Investment. The issuance was carried out with a fatwa by its Shariah Board.

In 2012, Qatar’s banking sector was buttressed by high oil and gas prices and a large-scale infrastructure programme. The banking sector continuously benefits from substantial GDP growth in the economy of the country. Real GDP reached 19% in 2011. This increase was caused by strength in oil prices and the substantial increase in LNG production to 75mnt (from 55mnt). The latter was able to drive hydrocarbon sector GDP up by more than 30%. The output of the non-hydrocarbon sector continued its growth as well, sustaining a 9% rate due to ongoing capital expenditure on infrastructure development.

2013 is the 38th year for the global Islamic banking industry in its contemporary phase. The start of the new year is filled with invigorated optimism, partly due to its continued proliferation in new markets, particularly in Oman and Arab Spring countries. Another reason for the optimistic attitude is the impressive momentum of the sukuk market. However, the Islamic finance industry tends to be beguiled by its own relative success largely because of the absence of independent evaluation of its performance and policy and architectural development.

The first edition of the Qatar CSR Report 2012 has been released. The central part of the report are the most recent developments in CSR from both government and private institutions. Reviewed developments include Qatar National Vision 2030, National Development Strategy 2011-16, Qatar 2022, National Day, and National Sports Day. In addition, the Millennium Development Goals are described in detail. The United Nation's ten principles on climate change in Qatar, and strategies carried out by the respective public and private sector entities to implement it in the country are incorporated in the report.

2012 is considered to be a turning point for banking in compliance with Islamic principles. New markets and new regulations in the Middle East contributed very much to the flourishing of the sector. According to data from Ernst and Young, globally assets managed in line with Shari'ah will reach in 2013 record heights, amounting to 1. 8 trillion U.S. dollars, up from 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars in 2012. The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and the Euro zone debt crisis were not able to stop Islamic banks in the Middle East from expanding their markets and business.

According to a study by the National Bonds GCC Savings Index, about 90% of the people in a number of GCC countries feel they are not saving enough for their future. The percentage of people, who do not put away any money for future saving, is 71% of residents in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, 74% in Saudi Arabia and 65% in the UAE. The study further shows that in Saudi Arabia 92% felt they were not saving enough. The percentages in the other countries involved in the study are 91% in Kuwait, 88% in Bahrain, 87% in the UAE, 85% in Oman, and 84% in Qatar.

The debut perpetual sukuk of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank have rallied since their sale last month on bets the lender is well positioned to capitalise on the emirate’s economic upturn, even though debt of emerging market peers dropped. Since their issuance on November 8th, the dollar-denominated Islamic bonds yielded 6.05% on Thursday, December 27th , down 33 basis points, or 0.33 percentage point. The average yield on HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai’s US Dollar Sukuk Financial Services Index gained 17 basis points to 2.9% over the same period.

Recently, United Arab Bank (UAB) held its year-end Board Meeting at the new regional office in Al Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi. Including its network of 20 branches across the UAE, the bank reported net profit of Dh298 million and operating profit of Dh382 million for the first nine months of 2012. The meeting was called to order by the founder and chairman of UAB - His Highness Sheikh Faisal bin Sultan Salem Al Qassimi. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and review the performance in 2012 and the outlook for 2013. According to His Highness Sheikh Faisal, The opening of our new and up-market regional office in Al Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi will enable UAB to offer their discerning customers a superior banking experience.

According to a statement by Abdul Aziz Al-Othman - CEO of Saudi Kuwait Finance House - the company has achieved a profit of SR19m since the beginning of 2012 die to investment in various short and long term investments. He particularly stressed on the strength of the Saudi economy and its numerous opportunities. This way, the company's growth potential is being continuously reinforced. Moreover, he pointed out that Saudi economy played a key role in increasing positive performance indicators during the coming period.

The Saudi British Bank (SABB) held three seminars on the topic of Islamic Banking Services. THe seminars took place in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar, and were organized by the Commercial Banking Services Department. A large group of SABB 's prominent corporate customers attended the events. Some of the specific topics discussed at the seminars were opportunities and challenges facing Islamic Banking as well as the promising future of Islamic Banking in light of how it differs from conventional banking, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In 2013 the government of Saudi Arabia plans to issue bonds backed by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Finance. The bonds will be used to fund construction work at airports in Riyadh and Jeddah. According to the Kingdom’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA), its plans include the issuance of a second sukuk at the end of 2012 in order to help fund its SR27 billion ($7.2 billion) airport in Jeddah. The first sukuk which was launched earlier in 2012 managed to raise SR15 billion to help fund the Jeddah airport development.

The ideal candidate must have exceptional communication skills, experience of working within a medium scale call centre operation preferably within insurance industry, ideally within an outbound sales environment, and will come with experience of account management and relationship management within a fast-paced targeted call centre operation.

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Responsibilities include the following: To perform all financial transactions (cash, cheques & transfer) for individual or corporate customers, in a risk free manner. To investigate differences in books by following the established process of checking reports, notes, denominations etc. To report deviations to concerned authority.