IslamicFinance.de

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) stated that Turkey’s participation (Islamic banks) “could continue their recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image,”. This puts ground to an Islamic finance market which is as old as the one in Malaysia and others in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Turkiye Finans, Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (KTPB) and Albaraka Turk Participation Bank (ATPB) have got majority GCC ownership interests. Asya Participation Bank (APB) has arranged a joint venture with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector funding arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), called Tamweel Africa which invests in financial institutions, leasing entities and extends lines of credit to finance trade in sub-Saharan Africa.

Egypt has renewed interest in the growing sector of Islamic banking and finance in an effort to rebuild the economy of the country using internal methods of financing.
Part of the country's pursuit will be to launch a sovereign Sukuk, or bond, program within months. It would be Egypt's first sovereign Sukuk, ahead of country states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Jordan aditionally mature markets such as Great Britain and France.

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

Alinma Bank has launched a new financing services, through whichclients are given free promotional gifts with the first personal financing (real estate, car or share financing) deal they complete with the bank.

Fahad Al-Semari, Alinma’s GM for retail banking, said the bank would offer a wide range of valuable gifts including BMW cars, electrical appliances (televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.) as well as the Mobily Limited service.

More than 500 capital management companies and investment funds that are signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) will be required to disclose information about their investment decisions, under a revision of the PRI rules.

The PRI is backed by the UN Environment Programme and the Global Compact, and has signatories from 45 countries with more than $25tn of assets under management.

Submission deadline 15 September 2011

Palgrave Macmillan is pleased to announce a call for papers for the Journal of Derivatives & Hedge Funds

For Islamic banking to grow further and develop there are many challenges relating to financing instruments, market structure and market regulation. The aim of the special issue is to provide a central platform and communication channel for researchers, academics, business leaders and industry practitioners relating to Islamic Banking. The key contextual challenges in the Islamic finance industry today include the innovations and developments at the leading edge of the field, and the long-term impact, scope and authenticity of these ideas in the context of an Islamic community and way of life. View full details at:

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jdhf/jdhf_cfp_islamic.pdf

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- The Shari'ah requirements in Islamic banking and risk identification.
- Current practices of asset management and portfolio management in Islamic banking
- Need of financial innovation in Islamic banking.
- The impact of the Basel Accords on Islamic banking
- Islamic banking and corporate governance

Qatar and three other GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE are ssen as four of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest density ultra-wealthy households.
According to the study, “ultra-high-net-worth” (UHNW) households or those with more than $100m in AuM, are mostly situated in Saudi Arabia registering 18 per 100,000 households.
Qatar, Kuwait and UAE also made it to the top ten list in terms of the highest proportion of millionaire household by market with 8.9 percent, 8.5 percent and 2.6 percent millionaire households, respectively.

Al khaliji Board of Directors discussed the latest developments with regard to the possible merger with IBQ and other matters. Other agendas like strategic and governance items were also reviewed.
Al Khalij Commercial Bank (al khaliji) QSC was incorporated on January 9, 2007 as a Qatari Shareholding Company under Commercial Registration No. 34548.
It operates from its head office and three branches in Qatar, one branch in France and four branches in the United Arab Emirates.

The permanent debt woes in Europe and persistent political tensions in the Middle East have influenced the global indexes in May. The DJIM Citigroup Sukuk Index -- which measures the performance of investment-grade-rated, U.S. dollar-denominated Islamic bonds -- posted the largest gain, closing 0.94% higher to reach 129.85 points, as of the close of trading on May 24.
The DJIM Pakistan Index also gained 12.67% since January 1, 2011.
The DJIM China Offshore Index plummeted 8.65% to 3,465.53, while the DJIM BRIC Index lost 8.56% to 2,114.90.

NCB Capital, a GCC wealth manager and Saudi Arabia's largest investment bank, has signed an exclusive agreement with INJAZ-Saudi Arabia to sponsor a three-year financial literacy-training program for male and female Saudi university students.

Dr. Ghaith bin Mubarak al-Kuwari, HE Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, started an exhibition for Arabic calligraphy (Al-Jood Exhibition) by the internationally renowned artist Sabah Arbili, at the Cultural Village (Katara).
The organisers are: Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre (Fanar), Reach Out to Asia (Rota) and the management of the Qatar First Investment Bank.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 23, 2011 – The Muslim Philanthropy Award winners were announced at the 4th annual banquet of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists in Dubai, UAE.

Every year, the Muslim Philanthropy Award honors an individual, a grantmaking institution and a corporation for their distinguished contribution to the field of philanthropy.

The Muslim Philanthropy Awards for 2011 were awarded to H.R.H. Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Personality) for demonstrating outstanding civic and charitable responsibility; Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Arabia (Grantmaker) for showing long-standing commitment to economic empowerment, human dignity, and institutional building; and Abraaj Capital, UAE (Corporation) for demonstrating longstanding leadership in advancing strategic philanthropy, creativity in responding to societal problems, and having significant positive impact on corporate giving in MENA region.

The key challenges and opportunities addressed in the Islamic Wealth Management Report are:

•Managing the Islamic wealth cycle through the entire process of wealth acquisition, preservation and distribution and achieving the required balance between spiritual and worldly obligations.
•Understanding the primary issues facing Waqf donors despite the strong growth drivers in this market: poor performance is due in part to the shortage of professionals leading to low quality asset management and lack of transparency.
•Considering the suitability of the Swiss private banking family office structure as a wealth management tool to ensure effective Islamic governance.
•Addressing the challenges facing Islamic mutual funds to achieve growth and performance.
•Recommending standardisation, education and diversification of Sukuk in order to increase the supply of products and the liquidity of the market.
•Analysing Islamic equity and indices performance over the last year to illustrate that diversification remains key for investment without compromising Islamic principles.

CIPE and the Global Corporate Governance Forum published a new guidebook with an accompanying video named Advancing Corporate Governance in the Middle East and North Africa: Stories and Solutions. The purpose is to help bussiness reach a better situation. They speak about self-dealing, lack of accountability and rampant corruption.

They try to proove that it is a good solution to incorporate sound corporate governance practices that assure that proper mechanisms are in place to preserve the core principles of fairness, accountability, responsibility and transparency.

Qatar National Bank Group Chief Executive Officer called on GCC banks to integrate. Ali Shareef Al Emadi expressed his oppinion and said that banks in the region are relatively small compared to institutions in many other parts of the world. To overcome this, we must consider integrating the banking sector of the region to not just increase access to markets but also encourage consolidation.

CIMB Asset Management has launched a monthly newsletter about the Sukuk market:

"Industry practitioners are positive that 2011 will favour the sukuk industry and various indicators show that a delayed resuscitation of the Islamic bond market is on track this year. As economies recover and high crude oil prices help to revive the market, sales of international sukuk are forecasted to grow over USD22 billion this year, which represents a 29 per cent increase from the previous year. The upswing in corporate spending, an increase in issuers seeking funding diversification and improving investor sentiment in the Gulf are also expected to fuel the sukuk market globally.

According to the HSBC/NASDAQ Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index, the difference between average yields for emerging-market sukuk and the London interbank offered rate narrowed to 282.7 basis points on
6 January 2011 - the least since August 2008. Industry practitioners agree that the low sukuk yield spreads should entice sukuk issuers to tap the market.

Alberto Brugnoni, ASSAIF, will moderate the Session on 'Finance and philanthropy' at the “4th World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists - Defining the Roadmap for the Next Decade” that will convene at the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai on March 23-24, 2011

Muslim Philanthropy is at a crossroad, challenged to build new models of giving while simultaneously refining old methods embedded in vibrant Islamic tradition. The foremost challenge in the field is to promote strategic and accountable philanthropy that complements and enhances the generations-old conventional charity, which is often personal and spontaneous

The Session will examine within a common framework the failure of zakat to achieve most of its socio-economic objectives, the stagnation of waqf institutions in performing their designated social functions and the growing divergence between the aspirations of Islamic economics and the realities of the Islamic finance industry. It will also offer actionable programme plans for zakat and innovative ways of using the institution of waqf to establish social enterprises, as possible common solutions

The not-for-profit Jersey Finance opens Abu Dhabi office to tap Gulf wealth from family offices and high networth individuals even as currency fluctuations erode values.
Jersey is a self-governing British Crown Dependency where financial services are the largest industry. Jersey Finance, a not-for-profit organization that is tasked with promoting Jersey as an International Financial Center, has opened a representative office in Abu Dhabi, close on the heels of another in Mumbai, India. It sees a significant outflow of investment from the UAE to offshore jurisdictions.

Cites risk averse mode of banks and lack of developed credit bureaus in the UAE.
The recomandation of Dubai Dr Nasser Saidi, chief economist of the DIFC Authority, is to establish an Emirates Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (EMGC) that would provide up to 30 per cent of the mortgage value and support the gap in the UAE mortgage market.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIBK) acting CEO Ahmad Meshari declined to comment on a report in Haberturk newspaper on March 10 that the bank plans to buy 25 % of Asya Katilim.