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Qatar National Bank has admitted that its systems were hacked but said the incident will not have a financial impact on the bank’s customers. Security researcher Omar Benbouazza said a Turkish far-right group called Bozkurtlar for Grey Wolves has claimed responsibility for the bank breach. He stated that the attackers used an SQL injection tool and the bank made a big mistake using known vulnerable software in the targeted host.

In Bangladesh Abdus Samad has been elected as the chairman and Mohammed Abdus Salam as the vice chairman of Al-Arafah Islami Bank. Samad is one of the founder directors of the bank, and vice chairman of S Alam Group. Salam is a sponsor shareholder and ex-chairman of Al-Arafah Islami Bank, and the current managing director of Mir Group.

Bank Muamalat CEO Datuk Mohd Redza Shah Abdul Wahid and MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali signed the Corporate Integrity Pledge of Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). The signing ceremony was also witnessed by Bank Muamalat chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Munir Abd Majid. The signing of the pledge signifies Bank Muamalat's declaration against corrupt practices and its resolve to work towards a highly principled business environment.

Summit Bank has received approval from Pakistan's central bank to conduct due diligence on Burj Bank. Burj Bank held 4.4 billion rupees ($42 mn) in paid up capital as of December, compared with the regulatory minimum of 10 billion rupees. Burj Bank said it had shortlisted three financial institutions to conduct due diligence on a non-exclusive basis. It also received an extension from the central bank to meet the mimimum capital requirement until June 30.

La 1ère édition du Salon International de la Finance Ethique et Participative SIFEP 2016 se tiendra du 20 au 22 octobre 2016 au Parc d’Expositions de l’Office des Changes à Casablanca.
Dans le cadre de la préparation de cet évènement majeur pour le développement de la finance islamique au Maroc, une conférence de presse consacrée à la présentation du Salon SIFEP 2016 sera organisée le mardi 17 Mai 2016 à 17h à l’hôtel Goden Tulip Farah – Casablanca.
La conférence de presse sera l’occasion de revenir sur le contexte du démarrage des institutions de finance participative et de l’émergence de la finance islamique au Maroc.
M. Reda EL HADDAJ, Directeur Général du SIFEP et M. Abderrahmane LAHLOU, Commissaire Général du SIFEP, effectueront une présentation du SIFEP 2016 et du Forum du SIFEP organisé en marge du Salon.

Capital Market Authority of Oman (CMA Oman) recently issued new sukuk regulations that aim to provide clarity and transparency to market players, while providing protection to investors in sukuk transactions. At the forefront of the historical initiative is Kemal Rizadi Arbi, a Malaysian who is an adviser at CMA Oman as well as a member of the Oman government’s sukuk committee. “It is to be noted that not all jurisdictions have specific and separate sukuk regulations, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with many just having a conventional bond regulatory framework with some additions made on the syariah requirements. “In addition, it has been drafted to provide flexibilities and spur innovation in the market, among others introducing a new trust regulation and structure and allowing the issuance of a sukuk programme,” said Kemal in an email to Business Times recently.

The financial services industry is a highly-regulated industry due to the mobilisation of investors, depositors and policyholders, that is, public funds. Significant public trust demands proper supervision and monitoring of financial services and, hence, the promulgation of statutes, statutory provisions, guidelines and circulars with direct supervision from financial authorities. Soundness and stability of the financial system are the universal concern of all financial authorities, as specified by World Bank Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs). With regards to regulation of Islamic financial institutions and services, various jurisdictions present different forms of regulatory framework. Variations of such framework are attributed to a country’s specific approach to the adoption of Islamic financial institutions, in particular, and embracing of the Islamic financial system, in general. A social choice to regulate significantly depends on the types of government financial systems and their perspectives on financial liberation, as well as either having a banking (such as Germany) or capital market (such as the United States) orientation.

Abu Dhabi-listed Sharjah Islamic Bank said on Monday it had obtained a three-year, $265 million syndicated murabaha financing facility from a group of banks.
ABC Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital and Noor Bank were lead arrangers and bookrunners, Sharjah Islamic said without giving pricing details.

Dubai Islamic Bank, the largest Islamic bank in the UAE, announced today that it had launched the first UAE Sharia Departments Forum 2016.The event was organized by the Bank, as Founder & Sponsor with the valued participation of other local Islamic banks, to create a platform where the Sharia departments of financial institutions across the country can meet to exchange experiences and share solutions to the challenges they face, with the strategic objective of developing the Islamic financial services sector in the UAE. The opening event took place on April 30, 2016, at The Palace Hotel in Dubai.
As the first event of its kind in the country, the Forum was led by Sharia department at DIB and featured the Sharia departments of other local Islamic banks including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank ,Emirates Islamic and Al Hilal Bank . 'Sharia Audit' was chosen as the theme of the event this year with a very comprehensive series of panels, each of which was led by one of the participants, discussing a different element of the topic.

Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) will begin investors meetings in May for a potential issue of sharia-compliant bonds, the firm said on Sunday.
Sipchem has appointed Riyad Capital and NCB Capital as managers of the possible sukuk, the value of which "will be determined based on market conditions", according to a Riyadh bourse filing.
On March 28, Sipchem announced its board had approved issuing sukuk.

What if the hundreds, even thousands of existing local currency initiatives were interoperable? Could they constitute a global system of exchange and offer at least a partial alternative to a dominant parasitic financial system? What are the social and technical obstacles to scaling grassroots initiatives which grow out of local community action?
The Credit Commons is a proposal from the builders of two of the largest blocs of community currencies in the world. Tim Jenkin, developer of Community Exchange Systems and Matthew Slater, developer of Hamlets and cofounder of Community Forge. A new white paper introduces the a backbone accounting infrastructure, touches on the economics and the technology, and describes the parts already in place. A small but diverse group has formed around the initiative and set up creditcommons.net where the paper is hosted and developments can be recorded.

Usman Siddiqui, the Managing Director of Equitable Financial Solutions (EFSOL), a Australian Islamic finance company announced the establishment of the company’s office in Singapore. The Singapore branch, which is registered as EFSOL Asset Management, will play a key role in the company’s regional strategy. EFSOL also announced the offering of its investment scheme, the EFSOL Income Fund, registered under the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a restricted Collective Investment Scheme.

According to The Fourth Annual Global Anticorruption Survey corruption remains a growing concern. Some 90 percent of those polled replied that their industries faced corruption risks, up from 85 percent last year. Also, 28 percent of respondents said the risk was significant, compared to 22 percent last year. The numbers for Africa and the Middle East increased significantly from last year's figures of 59 percent and 45 percent, respectively. For Russia, the score improved slightly, dropping two percentage points from 75 percent last year.

Abu Dhabi’s new financial centre has been running for six months but the corridors still feel quiet. Almost 200 people have been hired to work for Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) since its inception in 2013 but they are nowhere to be seen. Commentators have warned that ADGM’s established neighbour the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) could prevent it from flourishing, and argued it is unwise to locate two financial centres in such close proximity.

Dr Ishrat Hussain, Chairman Center of Excellence for Islamic Finance emphasized that Islamic Finance should not be restricted to a faith based segment and the banking sector has to increase investment in agriculture, SME and Islamic Microfinance. He stated that the share of Islamic Banks is 13pc growing at the rate of 28%, however, there are still regulatory and legal challenges which need to be addressed to make a real shift in lending profiles.

Dubai Islamic Bank’s Group Chief Executive Officer Dr. Adnan Chilwan, on his first visit to Pakistan, outlined the detailed growth strategy for the franchise in the country. This newly defined strategy repositions the Bank’s medium term plans alongside the transformational growth the Group has achieved as part of their 2014-2016 strategic agenda. The event also marked and celebrated the successful 10 years of the Bank’s operations in the country.

Backed by sovereign funds Iqbal Khan and his private equity firm Fajr Capital invests for financial and social returns ins Muslim countries. Fajr is a union of institutions that have high credibility and share the same values. CEO Iqbal Khan sees it as his mission to broaden the educated Muslim middle class.

he World Bank and Rabobank Foundation are teaming up to strengthen financial cooperatives in rural areas to improve financial services for smallholder farmers and agricultural SMEs. To get access to savings and credit, rural households and farms often establish cooperative financial institutions (CFIs). The idea for intensified cooperation on CFIs is based on the experience with a program in Albania, where Rabobank and the Irish League of Credit Unions Foundation are supporting the consolidations of two local CFI federations.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) is inviting its shareholders to subscribe for new shares, by way of a 1-for-4 rights issue. The Board of Directors resolved on 27 April to increase the issued capital of the Bank by AED 988,437,777 raising the capital of the bank to AED 4,942,188,884. The New Shares will be issued at a price of AED 3.20 per New Share, reflecting the nominal value of AED 1.00 per New Share and a share premium of AED 2.20. The ownership limitation on DIB’s shares remains in place: 51 per cent of the issued share capital of the bank must be owned by nationals of the United Arab Emirates.

Janet Ecker, president and CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance said Canada’s stable financial market and risk management expertise, coupled with a large and growing Muslim population and an openness to the world, enables Canada to become the North American hub for Islamic finance. Just over one million people identified as Muslim on the most recent household survey in 2011, and that number is expected to grow to around three million by 2030. Muslims represented 3.2 percent of the Canadian population in 2011, up from 2 percent a decade earlier.