IslamicFinance.de

The government forecasts a rapid growth in assets managed by Indonesian sharia-based microfinancing institutions, or baitul maal wat tamwil (BMTs), on the back of rising public trust.
Speaking at the BMT Summit last week, Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Syariefuddin Hasan said popular awareness of the benefits of sharia-based microfinancing had grown rapidly after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
According to the ministry, there are presently 3,307 BMTs in Indonesia with assets of Rp 3.6 trillion (US$403.2 million). BMT serve 2.5 million of the nation’s 39 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and control about 6 percent of total SME credit.

HSBC Amanah, the Islamic banking window of banking giant HSBC, is planning to launch its Islamic banking services in full scale in Bangladesh, a visiting top official of HSBC said Tuesday.
With the re-launch, HSBC Amanah in Bangladesh will be the largest presence in South East Asia, the deputy CEO said. Currently HSBC Amanah is operating in the UK, Malaysia, Middle East countries, Indonesia and other countries.
HSBC Amanah products are rigorously audited and approved by HSBC central Shariah committee.

Indonesia is under pressure from banks to match tax breaks and product offerings announced by Malaysia last week to catch up in developing Islamic finance.
Malaysia has the largest market for sukuk and is a global hub for the Islamic finance industry that manages $1 trillion of assets. The government will cut taxes on Shariah-compliant transactions next year to promote “innovation in Islamic securities".
Indonesia failed to sell all of the government sukuk it offered in an auction on Oct. 5, even after suspending sales for two months because investors demanded higher yields than the government was willing to offer.
Malaysia in the past year has issued permits to global investors including Aberdeen Asset Management Plc and Franklin Templeton Investments to start Islamic fund management. The funds, which will invest in ringgit and non-ringgit denominated assets, will be exempt from paying taxes until 2016, according to the central bank.

From Dow Jones: Indonesia raised IDR2 trillion ($224 million) from a private placement of non-tradable Islamic debt, or sukuk, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
The ministry sold the four-year sukuk at a yield of 7.13% to the Haj Fund, managed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Indonesia's finance ministry said the average weighted yield for its five-year sukuk was 7.18862 percent in an auction on Tuesday, down 68 basis points from a previous auction in July.

Nine member countries have been approved to receive financing. They are Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Gambia, Mauritania and Albania.
The financing includes technical assistance in the form of grants for development projects in Benin, Chad, Togo, the GCC and grants and concessional loans for Sudan.
The approved financing also includes health and educational projects directed towards communities in non-member countries including Congo, Fiji, India and South Africa.

Indonesia, the world’s most- populous Muslim nation, is reviving sales of Islamic bonds two months after consecutive auctions fell short of target because of concern over insufficient trading volume.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy, home to more than 192 million Muslims, is seeking to develop its Islamic finance industry to catch up with Malaysia, the world’s biggest sukuk market. Indonesia’s finance ministry is seeking to spur growth in the market after sales dropped 9 percent in the first four months of the year from 2009, government data show. The Religious Affairs Ministry, which manages money collected from Muslims to fund pilgrimages to Mecca, will buy 2 trillion rupiah of the debt in a private placement next month.

Indonesia's government will issue 2.364 trillion rupiah ($264.2 million) worth of sukuk in the fourth quarter of this year, a debt office official said on Tuesday.

With the Islamic finance industry worth an estimated $1 trillion and growing rapidly, it is perhaps no surprise that a number of Asia-Pacific nations are among a growing band of countries worldwide to signal their intention to carve out a larger share of the market.
Countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, along with Hong Kong, have set their sights on becoming hubs for Islamic finance, where investments are made according to Islamic principles.
While their sectors may be at varying stages of development, they are facing a common predicament: a shortage of professionals skilled in Islamic finance.
Education institutions around the Asia-Pacific region, like their counterparts in the Middle East and Europe, are increasingly seeking to fill that gap by adding Islamic finance specialization to their master’s programs in business administration and elsewhere.

The following borrowers are expected to sell Islamic bonds:

TURKEY: Citigroup Inc. plans to arrange more sales of Islamic bonds from Turkey after managing a $100 million issue for Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS, said Hulusi Horozoglu, director of global Islamic banking at Citigroup.

PAKISTAN: The South Asian country plans to sell sukuk maturing in a year or less in the domestic market by the end of this month, according to an e-mailed statement from Syed Wasimuddin, a spokesman for State Bank of Pakistan, the nation’s central bank.

CAGAMAS BHD.: Malaysia’s national mortgage company plans to sell more Islamic bonds this month following a sale in August under its 5 billion ringgit ($1.6 billion) sukuk program, the Business Times reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the proposal.

INDONESIA: plans to sell 2 trillion rupiah ($224 million) of Islamic bonds by private placement this year, said Rahmat Waluyanto, a director at the Ministry of Finance.

Jakarta-based Bank Syariah Mandiri joined Islamic lenders worldwide to use Ramadan to remind Muslims to obey the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad that ban interest. Emirates NBD of Dubai waived payments on personal loans during Ramadan, while Maybank Islamic in Kuala Lumpur started automating charitable donations. Banks in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, offered limited-edition products to generate Ramadan-linked revenue and publicity. Bank Syariah Mandiri, the Islamic unit of Indonesia’s largest bank by assets, Bank Mandiri, collaborated with a local TV operator on a program aimed at promoting Shariah-compliant banking during the holy month. Shariah finance prohibits the charging of interest as well as investments tied to gambling and alcohol. Returns are generated as a share of profits from assets.

MAYBANK, Malaysia's biggest lender, has set up a dedicated Islamic banking hub here as part of a concerted push to expand the business beyond its home market, as it strives to gain an edge over rivals vying to stamp their name on South-east Asia. About one-third of the bank's Islamic financing portfolio comprises corporate and business loans, while the rest includes home loans, receivables from car and equipment hire-purchase financing schemes, credit cards and personal loans, he said. In Indonesia, Maybank is converting its subsidiary Bank Maybank Indocorp into a full Islamic bank that will be re-branded Maybank Syariah Indonesia. It will then use the distribution network of Maybank's other subsidiary there, Bank Internasional Indonesia, which has 290 branches, to sell Islamic banking products and services.

Malaysia's largest lender Maybank on Friday announced plans to expand its Islamic finance business in Singapore and Indonesia to tap the markets' demand for such services. In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, the bank will open at least one new branch a week to increase its network. Maybank chief executive Abdul Wahid Omar is also planning to expand its Islamic services in Singapore, whose population is 13 percent Muslim. Maybank is determined to become the number one Islamic bank in ASEAN. Maybank is aiming to break into the world's top 10 Islamic finance centres, Abdul Wahid said. Bank Melli Iran is the global leader in Islamic finance.

Indonesia's finance ministry, Agus Martowardojo, sold 336 billion rupiah of sukuk to the religious affairs ministry through a private placement, said the debt office. The bonds will help fund a budget deficit seen at 1.5 percent of gross domestic product this year.

Sovereign Islamic bonds from Asia to the Persian Gulf are lowering returns on corporate sukuk for the first time in three months.

Malaysia’s Lembaga Tabung Haji fund, France’s BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Duet Mena Ltd. in Dubai forecast government debt will outperform until property prices in the Persian Gulf recover from a slump that prompted credit-ratings companies to downgrade corporate bonds.