IslamicFinance.de

Azerbaijani leasing company Ansar Leasing plans to raise portfolio up to $22 million in 2012. The statement came from Ceyhun Naghiyev, the company’s CEO.
He added that the comapny has at this point 350 valid contracts, having the majority of the portfolio accounts for leasing of real estate, vehicles, construction machinery, equipment.

Islamic Development Bank affiliate the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is helping to conduct a much needed Takaful offering to Azerbaijan through the development of a new Takaful company.
In order to manage this, ICD has included a local private partner for the first time in the form of Amrah Bank, Azerbaijan’s fifth largest bank.

It is possible that the Commonwealth of Independent States will become the next frontier for Islamic finance. At this point, six Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan are members of the CIS. Moreover, Russia has also 20m indigenous Muslims in Russia, mostly concentrated in the semi-autonomous Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.
Although the relationship between Russia and its Muslims wasn't very good, it has started to make concerted efforts to reach out to Turkey, Iran and the Arab nations to the south and Pakistan, Malaysia and the Islamic democracies of South East Asia.

Mohammad Yahya Maroufi, secretary general of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), revealed that his organization has agreed to certify a bank to promote economic cooperation with banks in the Islamic countries.
He added that the plans include to open a trade market for its member states.
The ECO curent members are: Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Amrahbank and Turkapital Holding BSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The reason is to set up a cooperative working partnership in areas of common interest, the purpose being to encourage cooperation between the parties in the areas of direct investment opportunities in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Mr. Fawaz Al-Issa, Chief Executive Officer of Turkapital and Mr. Emil Mammadov, Chairman of the Management Board of Amrahbank signed the agreement.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Amrahbank OJSC and Turkapital Holding CJSC in order to set up a cooperative working partnership in areas of common interest.
The bank states that the objective of this agreement is to encourage cooperation between the parties in the areas of direct investment opportunities in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Fawaz Al-Issa, chief executive officer of Turkapital and Emil Mammadov, chief executive officer of Amrahbank signed the agreement.

Because of the strict rules of Islamic finance, many countries have avoided the worst of the 2008 economic meltdown. Now officials in the Russian republic of Tatarstan are hoping that Islamic finance can help them attract direct investment from Muslim nations around the world.
Delegates from as far afield as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates were welcomed last week in a summit on Islamic finance in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

Four out of seven tenders submitted to the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) came through stage one of the competition to land a consultancy contract on the provision of Islamic banking and financial services.
Among the finalists are: Ekvita & Islamic Finance Advisory Assurance Services, Ernst & Young with Baker McKenzie, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and consortium consisting of Salans, Pinsent Masons and KPMG.

Hikmet Allahverdiyez, director of Moore Stephens in Azerbaijan, has the strong oppinion that if banks won't be aloud to have more freedom to invest across the economy, Islamic finance will fail. Azerbaijani banks can only provide "a limited set of Shari'ah compliant products" to retail customers.
At the end of last year Elman Rustamov, chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, stated that the CBA has no plans to develop Islamic banking within the next two to three years.

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. GRBS jointly with Dar Al Istithmar, a UK-based Shari’a advisory firm and the global leader on Islamic Finance System, is to conduct "Global Islamic Finance System" Master Class in Azerbaijan for the first time.

The Kazakh city of Almaty will host an international conference on development of Islamic finance in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Azerbaijan's news agency AzerTac reported Friday.

Azerbaijan, the oil-rich Caspian country with a population of about 9 million and a member of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), is reaching out to Islamic finance. Faig Mammdov, special adviser to the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), Jahangir Hajiyev, focuses on the current developments and future prospects for Islamic finance in the country and region and gave an interview to Mushtak Parker, Arab News. Currently there is no specific regulation and no stand alone Islamic banks, but some products, as well as Islamic microfinance.

Khaleej Times reported on 26 March about The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), an arm of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
 
According to Khaled M. Al Aboodi, the new CEO, international projects include the feasibility study to establish an Islamic bank in Maldives and further studies regarding sukuk issues of banks in Mauritania and Indonesia. ICD has also initiated an Islamic investment bank in Azerbaijan.
 
In Saudi-Arabia ICD has established a real estate company called Ewaan, which is capitalised at SR4 00 mn. The company plans to build housing complexes for the low and middle-income people.
 
ICD provides a variety of financial products to its clients such as direct financing through equity participation, term-financing, line of financing to commercial banks and national development financing institutions (NDFIs), short-term corporate finance, asset management, structured financing, and advisory services to private and public companies.
 
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