IslamicFinance.de

The launch of the first template for an over-the-counter Islamic derivative contract is "imminent" and will encourage more companies to hedge their risks, an executive at a bank involved in its creation told Reuters on Tuesday. The contract, which is expected to pave the way for quicker and cheaper Islamic risk management and more frequent cross-currency transactions, was initially due to be launched a year ago.

Rapid growth among Saudi Arabia's Islamic insurers will benefit the domestic bond market but bypass dollardenominated issues due to regulations that keep insurers' investment close to home, experts and executives said.

Strong growth in the takaful, or insurance industry has underpinned hopes it will give a boost to the market for Islamic bonds, or sukuk.

Insurers are important investors in conventional fixed income markets, but sukuk have been mostly bought by Western investors such as hedge funds and banks.

In a presentation for the performance of the GCC banking sector, KIPCO Asset Management Company (KAMCO) Research Department presents a detailed analysis for the financial statements for 58 banks with the purpose of shedding the light on the repercussions of the crisis on the financial position of the banking sector in the GCC Region which represents a key sector for any country's economy.

Moreover, total provisions booked by the GCC banking sector since the start of the financial crisis in September 2008, have reached USD 11.7 billion of which USD 4.72 billion or 40% booked by Kuwaiti banks. It is worth noting that the provisions of Gulf Bank reached USD 1.76 billion, representing 37% of the total provisions booked by Kuwaiti banks since the start of the financial crisis in Sep-08.

Highlighting the sound underlying investment strategy of its fund managers and innovative product development strategy, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority (DMCCA) announced today that its Shariah-compliant Dubai Shariah Asset Management (DSAM) Kauthar Commodity Funds recorded industry leading gains in the 12 months ending December 31, 2009. The DSAM Kauthar Commodity Fund (DKCF), an equally-weighted fund-of-funds comprised of four single-strategy, commodity-focused funds that invest exclusively in Shariah-compliant long/short equity hedge funds on the Al Safi Trust platform, was up 41 per cent at the end of last year. During the same period, DKCF managers returned roughly double the average return of their equity and commodity benchmarks. The fund-of-funds total assets under management stood at US$250.1 million as of December 31, 2009.

While the medium-term prospects for the global sukuk market remain strong, the prospects are weaker for Dubai-based issuers and potentially other countries in the Gulf. That’s the assessment of ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P), which also said that Malaysia and South East Asia were likely to lead the global sukuk market in issuance of the next couple of years.

Dubai Emirates NBD announced yesterday that the company has decided to discontinue use of Standard & Poor's (S&P) Investors Service for rating of its banking subsidiaries, Emirates Bank International (EBI) and National Bank of Dubai (NBD).

The Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME) expects 2010 to prove a year of major and strategic changes towards operation as an Islamic Sharia-compliant bank as of the second quarter, upon completion of procedures to obtain the required Amiri Decree approving the conversion.

Rapid growth among Saudi Arabia's Islamic insurers will benefit the domestic bond market but bypass dollardenominated issues due to regulations that keep insurers' investment close to home, experts and executives said.

A new watchdog is to be launched to investigate suspected violations of Sharia-compliance among Islamic finance products, Arabian Business has learned.

Press Release

San Francisco, USA-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Feb., 15th, 2010 – Khalijia Invest, a leading global Shari’ah compliant investment firm chaired by HH Prince Sultan Bin Mohammad bin Saud Al Kabeer and regulated by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) today announced that it has selected IdealRatings Inc., a global Shari’ah compliant fund management service provider to take full advantage of IdealRatings’ universe screening and Shari’ah compliant fund management service.

Khalijia Invest needed a robust, fully integrated Shari’ah compliant fund management service to streamline it Shari’ah funds investment process and analysis, and turned to IdealRatings for its integrated Shari’ah funds service capabilities.

IdealRatings enable portfolio managers to maximize Alpha through a detailed Shari’ah compliant universe research for more than 40,000+ equities in 100+ countries, which results in more than 12,000 + compliant equities. Dhafer Salih Alqahtani, EVP & Deputy CEO of Khalijia Invest asserted that “IdealRatings increase our efficiency and empower our portfolio managers to concentrate on generating more Alpha for our Investors”

KIPCO Asset Management Company (KAMCO) Research Department had carried out a presentation of the performance of GCC banking sector by analysing the financial statements for 58 banks with the purpose of shedding the light on the repercussions of the crisis on the financial position of the banking sector in the GCC Region which represents a key sector for any country's economy and the analysis revealed as follows:
During 2008, GCC banks have witnessed record levels of provision for doubtful loans where together recorded total provisions of USD 7.1 billion. Provisions booked during FY 2008 represent a notable 243% increase from those booked during 2007 which recorded USD 2.1 billion, while provisions that had been booked during 2006 recorded USD 1.44 billion

Newly launched Saudi bank Alinma said on Saturday its fourth quarter net profit fell 85 percent from the previous quarter due to increased operational costs.

Dubai Bank confirmed today that its current Chief Executive Officer, Salaam Al Shaksy, will be leaving the Dubai-based Shari'a-compliant financial institution to assume the role of Chief Executive Officer at National Bank of Oman.

Eastern District Cooling Co. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zamil Industrial Investment Company (Zamil Industrial), has signed with The National Commercial Bank (NCB), the first non-recourse project financing done in the region for a district cooling project. In November 2007, Zamil Industrial signed a 22-year Energy Performance contract with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for the complete outsourcing of process and comfort cooling, including the building of a central cooling plant to supply 20,000 tons of refrigeration within the premises of
Saudi Iron & Steel Company (Hadeed) in Jubail Industrial City.

Medium-term growth prospects for the world's sukuk market are good, said Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in a report published today. In addition, we understand from unofficial market sources that about US$10 billion more could potentially enter the pipeline. If that comes to market, total sukuk issuance in 2010 could approach the current 2007 record of US$34.3 billion. The main uncertainty this year is market conditions.

For the second year in a row Al Rajhi Bank has achieved first place ahead of 80 other large Saudi companies participating at the Saudi "Competitiveness for Responsibility" awards. Held as part of the Global Competitiveness Forum activities, the ceremony honouring the participants was organised by Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority with the support of the King Khalid Charitable Foundation.

Press Release

Bahrain-Based Gulf Finance House Lowered To 'SD/SD' (Selective Default) On Partial Debt Extension

*Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) yesterday extended the maturity of $100
million of its $300 million syndicated loan by six months. *Because we consider the
partial debt maturity extension a "distressed exchange", we are downgrading GFH to
'SD/SD' (selective default) from 'CC/C'. *We expect GFH to soon extend the maturity
of another facility (subject to final approval from all syndicate members). Once the
maturity extension is finalized, we plan to reassess GFH's credit standing and
change the ratings accordingly.

PARIS (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 10, 2010--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said
today it lowered its long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on
Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House G.S.C. (GFH) to 'SD/SD' (selective default) from
'CC/C'.

"The downgrade to 'SD/SD' follows GFH's completion of the extension of maturity of
$100 million of its $300 million syndicated loan facility due Feb. 10, 2010," said
Standard & Poor's credit analyst Emmanuel Volland.

Bahrain-based Islamic lender Al Baraka is in talks to buy a stake in Malaysia's Bank Muamalat, its chief executive said, with a source adding it could buy up to 49 percent in the lender.

Noor Investment Group's Noor Islamic Bank and Noor Takaful announced the creation of a new social media online forum shapeyourcountry.com to connect people living in the UAE across nationalities, age and econ-omic status, as well as Emiratis residing abroad.

Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the international standard-setting organisation for Islamic finance, has published its new standards publications. It is entitled Sharia Standards 2010 and Accounting, Auditing, and Governance Standards 2010. The Sharia Standards 2010 publication contains 41 Sharia standards including 11 new standards.