IslamicFinance.de

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of the Islamic Development Bank Group Ahmad Mohamed Ali in Jeddah. They expressed their satisfaction with the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Islamic Development Bank. It was noted that the ongoing development processes in Azerbaijan gave a push to the expansion of the bilateral relations. Azerbaijan and the IDB cooperate in the fields of oil and gas, power industry, water supply, road construction, implementation of infrastructure projects, agriculture and industry, and investment making. The parties exchanged views over the issue of involving other partners in the bilateral cooperation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has envisaged a roadmap for restructuring and reorganising the Islamic capital market. The initiative aims at the promotion of Shariah compliance in the capital market of Pakistan. The roadmap entails centralisation of the Shariah-related capital market activities, introduction of uniform Shariah Regulation for the takaful, modarabas, Islamic mutual funds, Islamic pension funds, Islamic REITs, other Islamic financial institutions (other than banking), Shariah compliant (Non-financial) Companies, Islamic products and instruments.

The Malaysian Islamic banking section of HSBC Holdings has tapped the Islamic bonds (sukuk) market last Friday, as part of a S$1.1 billion sukuk programme. According to Reuters, the bank planned to raise up to 500 million ringgit worth of sukuk, using an agency-based structure known as 'wakala'.
The transaction ist he first issuance of sukuk by HSBC Amanah Malaysia Berhad since October and September 2012. HSBC Amanah has appointed HSBC as lead arranger with Hong Leong Islamic Bank and Maybank Investment Bank as joint lead managers for the sale.

In an opening ceremony Finance Minister Ishaq Dar expressed his pleasure to the State Bank of Pakistan which has been supportive to such initiatives like the Centre of Excellence in Islamic Finance Education (CEIFE) which strengthens the efforts to increase Islamic banking and finance.
The Islamic finance industry had reached US$ 1.8 trillion in the last 40 years according to SBP Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra. According to experts, the Shariah compliant assets globally are expected to grow up to 20% annually and financial assets will probably reach US$5 trillion by 2020. Pakistan, by the end of 2018, would have reached an overall share of Islamic Banking of 15%, currently 10%.

The 12th IFSB Summit will be hosted by The National Bank of Kazakhstan. The theme of this year’s Summit is «Core Principles for Islamic Finance: Integrating with the Global Regulatory Framework». The 12th IFSB Summit will focus on the major development in the supervision and monitoring approach to the Islamic financial services industry. In particular, various sessions in the Summit will address the role of the Core Principles in enhancing the regulatory consistency and resilience of the Islamic financial services industry as well as enabling the necessary frameworks and pre-conditions for the assessment of regulatory and supervisory regimes.

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and CEOs of commercial banks reached an agreement that the institutions should not offer a deposit rate of more than 22%. The CBI has focused on restricting the monetary base and raising profit rates on participatory loans to curb inflation over the past 18 months. The policy has been a successful attempt as inflation dropped from 34.7% in the year up to March 20, 2013, to 15.8% in the year up to Feb. 20, 2015. However, Abbas Kamrei, a board member of Bank Melli, the largest state-run commercial bank, criticized CBI's interest rate policy as incorrect. He urged CBI officials to take into account the public expectations from banks.

There are five Islamic banks operating in Pakistan. The significant shares of paid-up capital actually comes from the high net worth families and institutions in the Middle East, especially the six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). There are six countries - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, UK and Singapore - from where individuals and institutions have invested in the five fully-fledged Islamic banks in Pakistan. Almost all of these banks are advised by the graduates of Darul Uloom Karachi, Jamiatul Uloom Islamia Binnori Town Karachi and Jamiatul Rasheed Karachi – well-known religious seminaries of Deobandi school of thought.

Warba Bank has announced that it successfully arranged $150 million Shariah-compliant one - year receivable backed syndicated financing facility for the International Bank of Azerbaijan. The Bank reported that it participated with a stake of $20 million in this transaction along with J.P. Morgan Bank, Citigroup, Barwa Bank, Al Hilal Bank, Noor Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank. he IBA concluded last year with $526 million sharia compliant assets compared to the Islamic Banking assets at the level of $220 million at the beginning of 2014. Behnam Gurbanzade, Director of the Islamic Banking Department of the IBA, recently said that the Bank is planning to increase the amount of Islamic financing in Azerbaijan in 2015.

Kuwait's Warba Bank has successfully arranged a US$150 million, Sharia-complaint syndicated finance facility for the International Bank of Azerbaijan ("IBA"). The facility has a tenor of one year with a bullet repayment due at maturity. Warba Bank has participated in this transaction with a stake of US$20 million in a consortium of six regional and international banks: J.P Morgan Bank, Citigroup, Barwa Bank, Al Hilal Bank, Noor Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank. In addition, Warba Bank has also announced its contribution of US$15 million in an Islamic Sharia-complaint facility amounting US$80 million arranged by HSBC for the Turkish Ozun Group. Moreover, the Bank sold its real estate investment in West Bromwich in the United Kingdom achieving net profit of KD 640 K.

Iran's Bank Mellat is suing the British government for almost $4 billion in damages after the Supreme Court quashed sanctions imposed against it over alleged links to Tehran's nuclear programme. The lender wants compensation for the "significant pecuniary loss" and substantial reputational damage it sustained as a result of sanctions imposed in 2009, according to a claim filed in London's High Court. It claims the UK government also successfully lobbied other authorities to impose their own sanctions that ultimately caused and continue to cause the loss of profitable business, customers, banking relationships and dealing services.

To regulate and develop the Islamic financial market, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has established an Islamic Finance Department. The new specialised department shall carry out the functions of Shariah regulation and compliance, product development, market awareness, Shariah securities market development and international liaison and networking. The Islamic Finance Department will act as a backbone for co-ordination between the SECP's operational departments with the primary objective of regulating and promoting Islamic finance and Shariah compliance in the capital market. Out of Pakistan's total Islamic financial assets of over Rs 1.7 trillion, around 40 percent assets are directly or indirectly regulated by the SECP.

Liquidity management has become easier for Islamic banking institutions as well as for the State Bank with the Sukuk-backed open market operations gaining momentum. The central bank has so far conducted about a dozen Sukuk OMOs since the introduction of this concept in October 2014 and IBIs have responded to it in good spirit. Central bankers say holding of OMOs using Islamic financial concept of Bai-Muajjal is but one component of a broader plan for better liquidity management. The plan, drawn up after seeking inputs from stakeholders, also envisages establishment of a discount window for IBIs later this year. But in addition to several other things, IBI’s want of interest in human resource building also impedes fast-tracking of the planned moves for this purpose.

Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Executive Director Nasim Shahid cancelled the licence of the asset management company Dawood Capital Management on March 22, 2013. He concluded in his order that Dawood Capital Management CEO Tara Uzra Dawood used privileged information and forged documents to avoid an imminent loss of Rs18.2 million. He also imposed a penalty of Rs20 million on her. The appellate bench of the SECP set aside the earlier order on January 22, saying the SECP executive director “did not have the power to pass the impugned order”. The bench also overturned parts of the 17-page original order that held Dawood guilty of having defrauded investors in the run-up to the write-down in the value of the mutual funds.

Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) has signed a new agreement with Azerbaijani microfinance institution VisionFund AzerCredit (VF AzerCredit). The objective is to provide advisory services with the aim of developing a comprehensive Shariah-compliant microfinance solution for the country. Vision Fund AzerCredit's work emphasizes the provision of loans to small and micro entrepreneurs in rural areas, especially those remote regions which remain largely unbanked, through 45 outlets in 38 districts. With more than 80,000 borrowers and a portfolio of over US$83 million, the group is a leader in the Azerbaijani microfinance field. The VF AzerCredit agreement represents the latest step in the ICD's program to support and develop the growth of the private sector in Azerbaijan.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) has signed a new agreement with Azerbaijani microfinance institution Vision Fund AzerCredit. The objective is to provide advisory services with the aim of developing a comprehensive Shari’ah-compliant microfinance solution for the country. VF AzerCredit's work emphasizes the provision of loans to small and micro entrepreneurs in rural areas, especially those remote regions which remain largely unbanked, through 45 outlets in 38 districts. With more than 80,000 borrowers and a portfolio of over $83 million, the group is a leader in the Azerbaijani microfinance field.

The shareholders of Jahangir Siddiqui & Co Ltd, the flagship company of JS Group, in their general meeting held on February 2, have unanimously approved to invest up to Rs1.669 billion in the Bank Islami Pakistan Limited. On December 30, 2014, the Board of Directors of Bank Islami Pakistan Limited had approved to issue ordinary shares of Rs10/- each by way of rights to its members to raise the paid up capital of the bank by Rs4.320 billion.

Bank Islami Pakistan has received regulatory approval to study the acquisition of KASB Bank Limited. An acquisition could see Karachi-based Bank Islami add 105 branches to its existing network of 213, while the transaction would require the conversion of KASB Bank's conventional financial products into sharia-compliant ones. In November, the central bank placed KASB Bank under a six-month moratorium as it struggled to meet capital adequacy requirements. Last week, Bank Islami's board of directors approved a plan to raise 3.5 billion rupees ($34.8 million) via subordinated Islamic bonds to fund its expansion strategy.

Bank Islami Pakistan aims to raise Rs3.5 billion ($34.8 million) via subordinated sukuk. With Basel III global banking standards being introduced around the globe, several Islamic banks have issued such capital-boosting instruments, including those in Turkey, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Last week, Bank Islami’s board of directors approved a plan to raise Tier 2 capital in tranches of Rs500m to help fund its expansion, the Karachi-based lender said in a bourse filing.

According to Behnam Gurbanzadeh, IBA Islamic Finance Department Manager, the idea to establish the CIS Islamic Development Bank, proposed by IBA several years ago, has become attractive for their Russian colleagues. The interest of Russian banks for instruments like Islamic financing has suddenly increased. Russian banks have problems with funding and are actively looking for alternative sources of financing, Gurbanzadeh said. Last November he revived the idea of the CIS Islamic Development Bank and Russia together with Kazakhstan. IBA agreed to work on the establishment of a Working Group on Islamic financing under the CIS Financial and Banking Council.

Pakistan Mobile Communications (Mobilink) plans to raise Rs6.9 billion ($68.6 million) via Islamic bonds this quarter. The sukuk will help fund the network expansion of Mobilink, a subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding, and majority-owned by Russia’s VimpelCom. The credit guarantee will be extended by Mauritius-based GuarantCo, a specialised financial guarantor, indirectly owned by the development agencies of Britain, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands. Credit guarantees for sukuk are rare because of the profit-sharing nature of Islamic finance, but they could prove to be an important development, attracting a wider range of corporate and sovereign issuers to the Islamic bond market.