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Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and Islamic Finance news (IFN) have announced their collaboration to provide insights and analysis for Islamic finance worldwide. IFN readers will gain access to Moody's exclusive content covering Islamic finance, ranging from sukuk issuance trends in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to the latest trends in Islamic banking. Moody's is a global integrated risk assessment firm that empowers organizations to make better decisions. IFN is the leading Islamic finance news and solutions provider in the world, housing the largest pool of Islamic finance-related articles and coverage.

Islamic Fintech Week 2020 organizers revealed Bitcoin Affiliation as its ecosystem accomplice and sponsor. IFW2020 is hosted with the theme “Envisioning Islamic FinTechFuture” and is ready to be a platform for international stakeholders, regulators, tech startups and the Islamic finance fraternity. Bitcoin Affiliation is the Switzerland-based international trade group that works to advance enterprise on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The week will be a sequence of discussions, roundtable classes, debates and hopes to showcase a brand new expertise for on-line attendees to deal with native and international challenges and uplift humanity.

The College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar FinTech Hub (QFTH). Through the agreement, CIS and QFTH will engage and contribute actively to the development of the financial technology (FinTech) industry in Qatar. QFTH represents a range of stakeholders in the industry from early-stage firms to large financial services companies and relevant service providers, who stand to benefit from CIS' insights and research. The Fintech Hackathon, which was launched in June 2020, is one of the pioneering areas of collaboration between CIS and QFTH.

Russia’s Sberbank has structured its first trade finance deal with an Islamic bank to supply Russian wheat to Egypt. The deal with Saudi Arabia’s International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) was implemented through Sberbank’s subsidiary in Switzerland. Egypt’s state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) acted as the buyer in the deal. The Russian bank said ITFC will enable it to significantly increase its share in Russian wheat exports to Egypt.

Under English Law, a trustee who breaches his duties is exposed to a potential claim for breach of trust; breach of fiduciary duty; and/or negligence, and if he is a professional trustee, e.g. a bank , accountant, or solicitor, will have professional indemnity insurance cover. Unless an exemption clause is valid and exonerates the breach, or the court otherwise excuses the breach, the extent of their potential liability is unlimited, the court issue fees in the English court in a will, trust, and inheritance dispute, are relatively nominal. In exercising the general power of investment, the trustee is under a duty to have regard to the so-called ‘standard investment criteria’. These criteria also apply when the trustee reviews investments.

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has appealed to Islamic economic and financial actors to hone their digital literacy skills to survive amid the changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. He gave a speach at the virtual opening of the 2020 Sharia Economic Festival and Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) in Jakarta. Amin affirmed that digitalization was conducted in the wake of the changes in the current life order, including shopping for basic necessities online or through social media with the use of the internet. Amin noted that in terms of products, health and hygiene aspects were of absolute importance and offered enormous opportunities for the halal product industry. Not only for sharia economic players, but this year's ISEF was also held virtually to adjust to the current conditions to thwart the transmission of COVID-19.

Fitch Ratings has been recognised as the Best Rating Agency for Islamic Finance for the fourth consecutive year by The Asset magazine. Fitch has a dedicated sukuk rating criteria and provides takaful-specific considerations within its global insurance rating criteria. It also provides specific consideration to environment, social and governance factors in its ESG scores in rating Islamic banks. Recent landmark deals in which Fitch participated include the first sovereign green sukuk, issued by Indonesia in 2018, and its follow-up issue in 2019 and 2020.

The Western economies have relied on debt has got to stop says former Deputy Governor at the Bank of Canada. Governments and central banks have got to start following more symmetrical monetary and fiscal policies and that the world needs to look at debt reduction options and “needs a wholesale embrace of Islamic finance.”

Plusieurs pays africains se lancent depuis quelques années dans cette finance d’éthique et prometteuse. Présentement, les différents gouvernements de l’espace UEMOA (Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine) ont déjà élaboré un cadre règlementaire à travers la Banque centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO) pour réglementer l’émission des Sukuks souverains dans leur zone. Des États de l’UEMOA ont déjà émis des Sukuks à hauteur des centaines de milliards de francs CFA. Il est important que la Guinée emboite les pas à ses pays voisins pour prendre en compte la finance islamique dans son écosystème financier en adoptant ce modèle et l’harmonisant avec les modèles classiques dans le but de mener une politique de pluralismes dans l’attraction des investissements étrangers pour les secteurs privés et publics.

WebTV's Islamic Finance Weekly will be featuring a robust conversation with Abdulkader Thomas on Islamic Trade Finance, Challenges and Opportunities in Nigeria and Africa. Key discussion points include: understanding the concept of "Islamic Trade Finance"; how the Islamic Trade Finance Framework is helping to boost Intra-African trade; challenges and opportunities for integrating Islamic Trade Financing to support African businesses and SMEs; how Islamic Finance can be adopted to support the development of the economy and lift millions of people from poverty.

The stakeholders of the Islamic fintech space have determined nine strategic priority areas that will further reinforce and enhance financial inclusion in Malaysia. These include the setting-up of a national Islamic fintech taskforce; the renewed focus of enhancing digital and Islamic financial literacy, especially within B40 segment; developing smart partnerships among ecosystem players; and ensuring there was greater readiness among Islamic institutions to embrace digitalisation. The priority areas were drafted during the Islamic Fintech Dialogue 2020: Driving Financial Inclusion through Islamic Fintech held virtually in May. Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) CEO Surina Shukri said the end-goal was to empower the B40 group and the micro, small and medium enterprises.

A new UK-based Shariah-compliant crowdfunding platform providing business financing to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) launched at the end of June. Qardus is an appointed representative of Share In Ltd. According to founder Hassan Daher, Qardus is a peer-to-peer platform for everyone, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, open to investors seeking to generate superior returns as well as having a social impact. Qardus connects SMEs and investors. The platform offers the unsecured financing for a period of up to two years in the form of commodity murabahah. The minimum investment size is £100 and investors can expect over 10% return per annum but capital is at risk. Looking ahead, Qardus plans to offer more than peer-to-peer lending. It will look to raise £1.5 million by the end of this year and may consider VC funding or equity crowdfunding.

The cancellation of the Hajj pilgrimage sent shock waves of sadness and disappointment across the Muslim world. Performing the pilgrimage at least once for those who are physically and financially able is one of the five pillars of Islam. Making the trip is a sacred milestone for the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims. The Saudi government announced on Monday that no pilgrims from outside the kingdom could perform the hajj this year. On Tuesday, Saudi officials narrowed the order, saying that only about 1,000 pilgrims would be permitted this year, a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million who came last year. The cancellation weighs particularly heavily on older Muslims who have been waiting for years to go in hopes that they can fulfill their religious obligation before death.

Wahed Invest launched its first exchange-traded fund in the U.S. in July 2019. In June 2020, money manager Global X filed to launch a bond fund aligned to Catholic values. The surge in religious ETF offerings has come alongside the boom in responsible investing, often referred to by the shorthand ESG, for environmental, social, and governance. Global assets in ETFs under the ESG category have almost doubled in the past year, now reaching more than $110 billion. Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF tracks an index compiled by the FTSE Russell, which works with a board of experts that determines each company is compliant. Wahed’s ETF has seen inflows of about $35 million since its July 2019 launch.

One of the challenges of developing Islamic banking in the Philippines is that there are not enough Shari’ah scholars or Islamic finance experts. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also noted the lack of tax neutrality as a challenge. In order to have a clear information campaign, the BSP issued the latest FAQs or "Frequently Asked Questions". The BSP also issued "Simplified and concise discussions on lslamic banking fundamentals" that cover the following major points: core features of the lslamic banking law; accessibility of lslamic banking to both Muslims and non-Muslims; key distinctions between conventional and lslamic banking; and requirements for establishing lslamic banks or lslamic banking units (IBUs) in the Philippines.

The World Bank approved a US$500 million Financial and Digital Inclusion Development Policy Financing (DPF) program, which will support key policy reforms to promote digital transformation. The current DPF seeks to improve financial inclusion and access to more competitive digital infrastructure and services. In addition to promoting microfinance, the program will support access to foreign currency for startups. The DPF also paves the way for the Intelaka entrepreneurship program by supporting reforms conducive to startups’ development and creating new asset classes for early-stage financing for innovative enterprises.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) and Islamic stock indices have marginally outperformed their conventional counterparts this year, owing to their better management and lower leverage. Refinitiv head of Islamic finance Mustafa Adil said while syariah-compliant equity indices experienced identical volatility-induced declines to conventional stock indices, they had staged a better recovery so far. He added that these equities are expected to provide greater returns in the medium to long term as they are less leveraged.

The World Bank said the Islamic capital market's (ICM) value proposition has to be very clear to show that its concept is more powerful than the environmental, societal and governance (ESG) investment schemes. World Bank financial sector specialist consultant Dr Mohamed Eskandar Shah said ESG's value proposition seems to be quite straight forward compared to Islamic finance. He noted that between 2007 and 2019, the ICM, measured in global shariah equities, saw a 4.3% growth a year compared to the 10.2% expansion in ESG equities. As such, Islamic finance could become a subset of ESG investing, or eventually people will brand Islamic finance in the context of ESG, rather than Islamic finance having its own identity.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Islamic economic system is the key to getting out of crisis as global economy continues to suffer from coronavirus pandemic. President Erdogan said the loss of nearly 440,000 lives worldwide can't be attributed to Covid-19 alone, saying many countries have an economic system that protects only strong and the rich. Erdogan said Turkey is among the countries that has fought the pandemic with the least damage. Pointing out the country’s first-quarter growth of 4.5%, Erdogan said that Turkey has shown that it distinguished itself positively from other countries not only in the health sector but also in the economy, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

IsDB President Dr. Bandar Bin Hajjar stated that the bank was working on a pioneering project to establish a "Global Waqf Centre of Excellence" in Madinah, with a capital of $50 million. The aim of the center is to build a global umbrella for the Waqf sector, linking and coordinating all those interested in Waqf. The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) is preparing to launch the first initiative of the center to grant an approved certificate of Waqf specialist. IRTI is also working on the "Ish’had" platform, which is an e-platform using blockchain technology, to document and protect Waqf properties.