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Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC has reportedly obtained an approval from Indonesia's Financial Services Authority to increase its stake in PT Bank Panin Syariah Tbk to 40 percent from 24.9 percent currently, according to chief executive of Dubai Islamic Bank, Adnan Chilwan.

Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt is offering the country's central bank three proposals to activate the mortgage finance initiative for the low and medium-class incomes. Mahmoud Idris - Faisal Bank's Product Manager for Mortgage Unit - said that one of the three proposals offered by the bank to the CBE is to raise premiums of the housing unit gradually every year. The second suggestion is to elongate the funding period from 20 to 25 years. Idris stated that the third proposal is to launch a national campaign by the CBE in coordination with banks to raise citizens' awareness about the importance of the initiative and the necessary steps to participate in it.

The Iranian Bank Maskan (bank for housing) has undertaken a new method of financing projects to help urban development and land added value growth. Addressing the Iran Transportation and Urban Development Summit, Bank Maskan CEO Mohammad Hashem Botshekan said the bank is working on an asset management method different from the structured financing in which each project has its specific funding prescription.

The Board of Directors of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit ( ICIEC ), a Member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has appointed Mr. Oussama Abdel Rahman Kaissi as Chief Executive Officer of ICIEC. Mr. Oussama Kaissi has over twenty eight years of experience in the insurance and Takaful industry. He is the founding CEO of the National Takaful Company, Watania, had also established and led Abu Dhabi National Takaful from inception till 2010. Graduated in 1987 from Indiana University, USA and having worked in USA, UAE, Bahrain and Lebanon both in conventional and Takaful companies, Mr. Kaissi has got diversified exposure to different markets, cultures and business models.

Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd plans to issue up to MYR1.5 billion ($340 million) of medium-term sukuk, through its Malaysian subsidiary, to finance the latter’s present and future investments. The issuer, Country Garden Real Estate Sdn Bhd, plans to commence marketing of the first tranche of medium term notes (MTN) to qualified investors. The MTN will not be offered to the general public and will not be listed on any securities exchange, Country Garden said. The mode of issuance, size and coupon rate of the proposed issue will be determined prior to distribution, and is subject to market conditions and investors’ interest. CIMB Investment Bank Berhad was appointed as the lead arranger and lead manager.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said that it lowered its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on United Arab Emirates-based Takaful Re Ltd. (TRL) to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. the ratings agency subsequently withdrew the ratings on TRL at its request. At the time of the withdrawal, the outlook was stable. The downgrade reflects the deterioration of TRL's business risk profile, mostly due to challenges within the Islamic insurance sector that have been exacerbated by the company's lack of scale, S&P said. The stable outlook at the time of withdrawal reflected S&P's view that TRL's risk-based capital would remain at extremely strong levels. This is supported by TRL's excess level of capital relative to its low level of premium income.

Muhammad Islam, the managing director of Jaiz Bank Plc, has assured the bank's shareholders that it will declare dividend from the 2017 financial year. He said Jaiz, which started operations in 2012, was able to break even within three years because of its adherence to regulatory requirements. He explained the bank has three major categories of operations. The number one category is trade mode – that is buying and selling. Jaiz buys goods at the request of a customer and sells it to the customer adding our own profit margin. The profit margin is the bank's returns. On the outlook for the Bank, Islam said the bank wants to implement the vision of the directors of the bank not only to go national but internationally. That means in the entire West African region and beyond.

UAE's “aafaq Center for Research in Islamic Economy” will launch the first ‘Islamic Finance Encyclopedia’ and ‘Islamic Finance Directory’ in Arabic, at the 2015 Global Islamic Economic Summit taking place from October 5 to 6, 2015 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. It is worth noting that “aafaq Center for Research in Islamic Economy” was recently established to provide thematic, multi-disciplinary research on Islamic finance. The ‘Islamic Finance Encyclopedia’ comprises twelve volumes covering all aspects of Islamic Finance, including, Shari’ah Framework of Islamic Finance; Emergence of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs): A Comparative Historical Study with Conventional Financial Institutions; IFIs and Banking Services; Takaful Insurance, among others.

GFH Financial Group (GFH), the Bahrain based financial group, has repaid US$37.5 million to its debt syndicates. These repayments are in addition to US$33 million paid by GFH to its debt holders in 2014, and represents more than 30% of the Group's outstanding facilities. Today, the Group has outstanding debt of US$ 137 million under three facilities to be repaid on an amortized basis through 2018/2019. As of 30 June 2015, the Group's debt to equity ratio stood at only 0.24 underscoring the strength of GFH's balance sheet.

The proposed Shariah regulatory authority in the UAE will greatly benefit the local Islamic banking and finance industry an also help reduce the cost of institutions offering Islamic financial services, said Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori, Governor of the UAE Central Bank. The proposed Shariah authority will have the key objective of – among others – issuing fatwa for products and services; introduce new and adopt existing international standards; documents regulations related to Islamic financial services; advise central bank on Shariah bank regulations to conduct monetary and financial surveillance. Al Mansoori said banks in the UAE have been innovative and creative in terms of introduction of the new Islamic products.

The Islamic Finance Council UK (IFC) and crowdfunding platform Narwi were recognised at this year's Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)- Thomson Reuters Ethical Finance Innovation Challenge Awards (EFICA), while former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Founded in 2005, the IFC is a UK based not-for-profit specialist advisory and development body established to promote and enhance the global Islamic and ethical finance industry. Within the UK, the Council pioneered the Ethical Finance Roundtable (EFRT) series. Narwi is a non-profit Islamic crowdfunding platform which allows donors to support micro-entrepreneurs of their choice.

Across the GCC, public pension funds amount to US$397 billion, representing nearly a quarter of GDP and US$15,000 per national. This is according to EY's GCC Wealth and Asset Management 2015 report - "Fast growth, divergent paths". GCC Governments are relooking at existing models of both public and international pension funds to ensure they are sustainable. The size of GCC pension funds is relatively low, compared with employer-provided pension funds in the UK, for example, where these assets are larger than GDP and funds per individual are nearly four times the GCC average. There will be significant changes in the way GCC pension provision is looked at in the coming years because the current system may find it difficult to cope with the needs of GCC residents.

The Thomson Reuters Global Sukuk Index is at 118.10483 points, up from 117.98384 at the end of last month and 115.79726 at the end of last year. The Thomson Reuters Investment Grade Sukuk Index is at 116.80733 against 116.82783 at end-September and 113.69014 at end-2014. Some of the sukuk in the pipeline are: Oman will open subscriptions on Oct. 8 for its first sovereign issue of sukuk; the rial-denominated sukuk will have a tenor of five years, and the size of the issue will be decided on completion of a book-building exercise. Turkish Islamic bank Kuveyt Turk has picked seven banks to arrange a potential U.S. dollar-denominated sukuk issue. The Pakistani government plans an international sukuk issue, likely to be worth $500 million, next year.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd is "not in a rush" to sell its 30% stake in Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd, under the proposed merger with Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB). Khazanah's managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said the Malaysian state-owned investment arm's decision was incumbent upon the negotiated value for its Bank Muamalat stake. He cited the right price and the right configuration as requirements for a sale. DRB-Hicom Bhd holds the balance 70% stake in Bank Muamalat. According to Azman, as Khazanah is only a 30% shareholder in Bank Muamalat, Khazanah is not taking the lead in the merger talks. Khazanah will make a decision based on whatever they decide, he added.

The Global Islamic Economy Summit, set for the 5-6 October, will heavily stress the importance of financial inclusion to the future of Islamic finance. Financial inclusion is an interesting subject because it has primarily been seen only from the perspective that Islamic finance is able to promote inclusiveness by offering a Shari’ah-compliant offering to people whose exclusion is driven by their reluctance or unwillingness to engage with the conventional financial sector. An infographic from the World Bank in 2013 highlighted the size of the unbanked population estimating it at 2.5 billion people (34 per cent of the global population). That means that while Muslims make up 22 per cent of the world’s population, they account for 46 per cent of the world’s unbanked.

Malaysia Building Society's (MBSB) planned merger with Bank Muamalat Malaysia is expected to create a financial services entity with a collective asset size of some RM60 billion. Affin Hwang Investment Bankwrote in a note today that MBSB and Bank Muamalat's assets were valued at RM41 billion and RM22 billion respectively. Nevertheless, there could be potential write-offs of the loan book subsequent to due diligence exercises, which is likely to follow suit. However, Affin Hwang also said they were not too optimistic about the merger, as previously there have been other merger discussions between Bank Muamalat and other parties that were unsuccessful.

The government is mulling to purchase near maturing Ijara Sukuk worth Rs233.81 billion from the Islamic banks on one year deferred payment term to squeeze surplus liquidity. It is expected to buy Rs233.81 billion Shariah-compliant paper, maturing on 21 November, as no investment option is available for Islamic banks to park their surplus funds of around Rs80-90 billion. The government will buy Ijara Sukuk having issues of GIS9, GIS10, GIS11, GIS12, and GIS13 using Islamic financial concept of Bai-muajjal via open market operation for one year. The Islamic banking institutions are flush with excess cash in the absence of no fresh Sukuk in the market.

Bitcoin may be becoming the single common currency used by cyber criminals across the European Union, said Europol. In its 2015 internet organised crime threat assessment, it warned about, among other things, money muling and laundering services that required concerted and coordinated international law enforcement action, and that Bitcoin was featuring heavily in many EU law enforcement investigations. Although there is no single common currency used by cybercriminals across the EU, it is apparent that Bitcoin may gradually be taking on that role.

A first-of-its-kind bank following Islamic principles was opened in Xining, capital of China's northwestern Qinghai province. The Jianguo Road Branch of Xining Rural Commercial Bank began operation as Muslims celebrate Eid-ul Adha tomorrow. Before opening, the bank invited an imam from the city's Dongguan Mosque to offer supervision in terms of Islamic doctrines, standard of behaviour and the use of Arabic translations in their services. The bank offers small-sum loans to Muslim customers at 15 per cent of average interest rate as well as guarantee and mortgage services for Mecca pilgrims.

QInvest has launched the QInvest Pramerica Liquid Real Estate Fund in partnership with Pramerica Real Estate Investors, the real estate investment management business of U.S.-headquartered Prudential Financial, Inc. Pramerica will serve as the subadvisor of the Fund. The new Fund will invest exclusively in high yielding sharia'a-compliant real estate investment trusts and other real estate-related securities, sourced globally by the fully dedicated real estate securities team at Pramerica. The new Fund will be hosted on QMAP, QInvest's managed account platform.