IslamicFinance.de

The central bank had spent $28bn propping up the currency in less than two years; equivalent to more than a quarter of the combined central bank reserves and national oil fund. The immediate result was a 23 per cent plunge in its value. The move was a boost to Kazakhstan's struggling resources sector. Officials argue that relatively few groups in Kazakhstan will suffer as a result of the currency fall: three-quarters of depositors held savings in dollars, while 70 per cent of company borrowings were in tenge before the move.

As the Iranian economy opens up for business, regional Islamic banks are likely to benefit most as the country’s banking system is governed by Sharia, according to Moody’s. According to the Central Bank of Iran, the country’s banks and other financial institutions held 15,901 trillion Iranian Real ($558 billion) in total assets as of May 2015. Given the sheer size of the banking system and the country’s financing needs, Moody's expects a major boost to sukuk volumes, said Khalid Howladar, senior credit officer at Moody’s. However, Sharia harmonisation across jurisdictions would likely remain difficult, he added. Iran's banking sector is the largest contributor to the global total of Islamic banking assets estimated to account for 45 per cent of $1.2 trillion market.

Thanks to a regulatory action last year, the landscape of the country’s Islamic insurance industry is set to change forever with the entry of conventional insurance giants in the Takaful market. Jubilee Life Insurance and EFU Life Assurance, which control over Rs115 billion in total assets between them, have just launched Takaful products. The first set of rules governing the Islamic insurance industry did not allow conventional insurance companies to enter the Takaful market unless they set up stand-alone subsidiaries with separate paid-up share capital. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) replaced Takaful Rules 2005 with Takaful Rules 2012 three years ago, which allowed conventional insurance companies to set up Islamic ‘windows’.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will construct 300 schools across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to promote primary education in far-flung areas. IDB Programmed Head Shafat Hussain told a meeting of the AJK Planning and Development Department here on Sunday that besides constructing schools in remote areas, teachers of these institutes will also be provided special training. Hussain told the meeting that the project aimed to provide better education facilities to deserving children in far-flung and distant areas. AJK Director Education Syeda Geelani, Director Research Najeebur Rehman and other officials attended the meeting.

After a Hamas-sponsored cafeteria bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a federal complaint was filed against Iran's central bank in Washington D.C., that ended in a $12.9 million judgment against the republic. Other lawsuits alleging that Iran bankrolled terrorism followed, leading to awards of $20 million for a bombing of a Jerusalem restaurant, $350 million for a 1990 mass shooting, and $590 million for the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Bank Melli has set forth numerous creative arguments as to why it shouldn't be liable for Iran's debt. However, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday that those arguments cannot save it from paying nearly $17.6 million to the victims of terrorist attacks in Israel, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

The Kabulbank scam may be the largest theft of depositor money per capita the world has ever experienced. Kabulbank was Afghanistan’s largest bank when the central bank intervened on September 2010. It was put into receivership on April 20, 2011. New Kabul Bank (NKB) was established the same day by transferring old Kabulbank’s remaining deposit liabilities covered by an equivalent amount of claims on the central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB). Kabulbank’s deposits had dropped from $1.3 billion eight months earlier to under $0.6 billion by the time of its good bank/bad bank split.

Iran and Azerbaijan discuss creation of a joint bank and the opening of branches of the two countries' banks in Baku and Tehran. There is a branch of Bank Melli Iran in Azerbaijan, but it is not active, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said, adding that preliminary talks on these issues were already held. Branches of the new bank will operate in both Azerbaijan and Iran.

Jahangir Siddiqui and Company is going to increase its stake in BankIslami Pakistan by at least 7.4% in coming weeks. According to a note sent out to members of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Tuesday, the board of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company has decided to make a long-term equity investment of Rs749.3 million in BankIslami by purchasing 74.9 million shares from Dubai Bank PJSC at Rs10 per share. The shareholding of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company in BankIslami was 21.2% as on June 30. The total stake of the financial conglomerate in the Islamic lender will stand at 28.7% in case the company’s shareholders approve the equity investment decision taken by the board.

The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with FPCCI Standing Committee on Islamic Banking and Takaful organised a seminar on Islamic banking. Speaking at the occasion, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri said that there should be full-fledged Islamic banks on micro finance to support SMEs as currently no Islamic bank was focusing on SMEs with better products. He stressed that the branches of Islamic banks should be enhanced in the country to provide more consumer outreach as the insufficient branch network and lack of awareness in general masses were the major hurdle in the growth of Islamic banking.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) have announced to constitute an Islamic banking standing committee. The announcement was made by KPCCI president, Faud Ishaq while speaking at a seminar on 'Islamic banking and Takaful'. Faud Ishaq said the proposed committee will play vital role for provision interest-free banking facilities to business community as per Islamic code and sharia. He urged the Central bank to take measures for promotion of Islamic banking in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. KPCCI chief expressed satisfaction over 30 to 40 per cent growth in Islamic Banking by State Bank of Pakistan during last six years across the country.

A local consortium led by Al-Karam Group has offered to buy the 144.20 million shares of BankIslami Pakistan Limited (BIPL), which the bank's majority shareholder, Dubai Bank PJSC, tends to sell. The potential acquirer of BIPL's shares came in the limelight after Wednesday's stock filing of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company Limited (JSCL) in which the company disclosed that Dubai Bank PJSC had offered it, along with another shareholder of BankIslami, the saleable 14.3 percent stakes of BIPL. The Dubai Bank was bound, under the Founding Shareholders' Agreement it had signed with JICL and other stakeholders, to first ask, through issuing first refusal, the existing stakeholders if they wanted to increase their shareholdings in the bank.

Iran’s $415 billion economy is the second-largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia. Unveiling his nation’s economic plan for the next five years, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last month that Iran must aspire to average annual growth of 8 percent. The economy may grow 4 percent this Iranian financial year, double the pace expected before the nuclear deal, according to the deputy governor of Iran’s central bank. An OPEC member, Iran holds 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Revenue from crude sales represents just 15 percent of Iran’s GDP. Investors may prefer the car industry, manufacturing, energy and agriculture.

Iran has asked the government and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) to return the assets of Iranian entities remaining on the accounts of bankrupt Azerbaijani Royal Bank. Officials have appealed to the Azerbaijani government and CBA on the issue of solving the problem with the money of the Export Development Bank of Iran and other entities of the country, which remained on the accounts of Azerbaijani Royal Bank, which has declared its bankruptcy.

Two Iranian private banks – “Parsian” and “Pasargad” are interested in opening branches in Azerbaijan, the head of the secretariat of the Azerbaijani-Iranian intergovernmental commission on cooperation in trade, economic and humanitarian spheres Mehdi Mohtasham said.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) held a signing ceremony for Financial Innovation Challenge Fund (FICF) on promoting excellence in Islamic finance in Pakistan under its financial inclusion programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). The signing ceremony marks the beginning of the implementation phase of the FICF innovative Islamic finance education and research projects in partnership with higher education institutions which was earlier launched by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on January 9, 2015. At the ceremony, three projects were signed with Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Institute of Management Sciences (IM Sciences).

Dubai Bank PJSC wants to sell its shareholding in BankIslami Pakistan, a stock filing said on Wednesday. Another shareholder, Jahangir Siddiqui and Company, reported that it has received a letter from the UAE-based bank, saying it wants to sell 144.2 million shares in BankIslami Pakistan. The stake that Dubai Bank PJSC wants to sell constitutes 14.3% of the total issued shares of BankIslami Pakistan. Dubai Bank is offering its stake to Jahangir Siddiqui and Company and another (unnamed) shareholder of BankIslami Pakistan under its shareholders’ agreement that mandates a right of first refusal on a proportionate basis.

Dubai Islamic Bank will reportedly advise Pakistan on selling its 40 per cent stake in Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) as the country’s economic upsurge lifted its benchmark stock market index to a record this month. The emirate’s biggest Sharia-compliant lender would lead an advisory group that includes Deloitte, Lummus Consultants International, and Mohsin Tayebaly and Company. Pakistan has rejuvenated its economy in recent years after the IMF provided a US$6.6 billion bailout loan in 2013. The country, a net energy importer, is also set to gain from the collapse in oil prices and China’s $46bn investment plan to build transport infrastructure connecting the two countries.

Banks surpassed the agricultural credit disbursement target set by the SBP’s Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee (ACAC) for the year ending June 2015. Against the indicative target of Rs 500 billion (which was 28 percent higher than the actual agri credit disbursement of Rs.391 billion in FY14), banks disbursed Rs 515.9 billion in FY15, which was Rs 15.9 billion in excess of the target and 31.8 percent higher than the last year’s disbursement of Rs 391.4 billion, said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in a statement. Growth was also recorded in the agri outstanding portfolio which stood at Rs 335.2 billion at end June, 2015.

In the aftermath of Iran’s deal earlier this month with international powers to end sanctions, investors like Hans Humes are anticipating new bonds from Iran. As Iranian officials were in Vienna hammering out terms of the nuclear accord, Humes, a New York-based hedge fund manager, said he’d be a buyer when the nation starts selling debt to finance projects that weren’t viable under the sanctions. Before Iran can access overseas markets, the U.S. and European Union will need to lift a complex web of sanctions, which mainly include a ban on its lenders from dealing with Iran and Iranian banks’ access to the leading global financial-messaging system known as Swift.

Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Sunday for a united front among Middle Eastern nations to fight militancy, in his first regional trip since Iran reached an agreement with world powers on the country's nuclear programme - an agreement that raised fears among its Gulf Arab neighbours. Most Gulf Arab states are worried that Iran's July 14 accord will hasten detente between Tehran and Washington, emboldening Tehran to increase backing for Middle Eastern allies at odds with Gulf Arab countries. Most Sunni Muslim-ruled Gulf Arab states have long accused Tehran of interference in Arab affairs, alleging financial or armed support for political movements.