IslamicFinance.de

In 2016 investors will be able to purchase about IDR 13.7 trillion (approx. USD $1.4 billion) worth of Islamic bonds to be issued by the Indonesian government. Indonesia will use proceeds from next year's bond sales to boost the nation’s infrastructure development. Government-led infrastructure development is regarded as key to overcome the current process of slowing economic growth that has been plaguing Indonesia since 2011. Demand for Islamic bonds may in fact be stronger than demand for conventional bonds. Indonesian sukuk is also less volatile compared to conventional bonds as investors tend to hold sukuk until maturity.

In 2015, the Bank trained and invested in 50 Kuwaiti young people where they received academic and practical training on part-time basis at all branches of the Bank. The graduates were exposed to various banking transactions and business. The Training Program focused on the core banking knowledge and skills of new graduate Kuwaiti people. Warba Bank has hired 25 of the trainees in full-time jobs and assigned them to work across various branches. Their appointment gives an added - value to the recruitment policy adopted by Warba in line with the instructions from the various regulatory authorities for enhancing the banking sector with Kuwaiti national qualified labour.

Gatehouse Bank plc has announced the completion of an £8.6 million senior financing to support Investra's acquisition of a portfolio of five petrol stations in the UK. Based in Dubai and with an office in London, Investra is an investor of UK real estate. This transaction is the second financing which Gatehouse has completed in partnership with an equity sponsor based in the GCC region in the past six months. Investra is looking to increase our holdings of high-quality income generating assets. Henry Thompson, CEO of Gatehouse, said he was looking forward to announcing further transactions in the coming months.

The Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF 2015) will serve as a platform for historic discussions on what Islamic financial governance can help address ethical lapses in the ethical finance industry. GEFF 2015 will take place on the 1 and 2 of September in Edinburgh. Experts from organizations such as the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Al Rayan Bank, HSBC Amanah Malaysia, European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB-Rasmala) and Ernst & Young will engage fellow ethical finance leaders as part of GEFF's mandate to bridge the disconnect between Islamic finance and the rest of the ethical finance universe. During the panel discussions, experts will review the established regulatory infrastructure in Islamic finance. Find more information at www.geff2015.com.

Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlooks on Al Rajhi Bank (ARB), National Commercial Bank (NCB), Riyad Bank (RB) and SAMBA Financial Group (SAMBA) to Negative from Stable. The revision of the banks' Outlooks to Negative reflects that their Long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) are at the Support Rating Floor (SRF) for Saudi domestic systemically important banks (D-SIB) of 'A+'. This would be revised down to 'A' in the event of a one-notch downgrade of the Saudi sovereign. The Saudi banks' Support Ratings (SRs) and SRFs reflect the extremely high probability of support from the Saudi authorities, if required. Upward potential for the ratings is limited in light of a weakening sovereign and operating environment.

Islamic Finance is an ideal tool of financial inclusion and can address the poverty issues in East Africa effectively, according to Mr. Zubair Mughal, the Chief Executive Officer of AlHuda Center of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE). He was addressing a gathering of the banking and financial industry of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam during an Islamic Banking and Finance event. The overall objective of the event was to create awareness, knowledge development and sharing the best practices of Islamic Banking and Finance with local financial market, so that the Tanzanian Islamic financial market could be established with solid footing using Shariah & technical expertise as concrete.

Maybank Islamic Bhd is optimistic that Malaysia's financial sector will hold strong in the current turmoil and weather through the storm. Its chief executive officer Datuk Muzaffar Hisham is also confident that foreign investors will continue to invest in Malaysia's financial sector for the long run. Muzaffar was speaking to reporters after the signing ceremony between Maybank Islamic and the Selangor State Government for a new home financing package. On Thursday, Maybank Islamic recorded a revenue of RM1.9 billion for the first half ended June 30, 2015. Muzaffar said the group is expecting a lower loan growth for the second half of this year and will continue to monitor closely to maintain sustainability for the next few quarters.

The Qatar Central bank (QCB) has extended the deadline set for the insurance, reinsurance and Takaful companies to implement its new regulations. As per original schedule, the institutions were supposed to comply to the new regulations from the end of May. After realising that the insurance companies needed more time to reposition themselves to implement the new regulations, the central bank has extended the deadline to November 30. The proposed regulations restrict the companies and insurance practitioners from getting involved in cross-border activities. Besides, the QCB regulation requires the insurance companies to simplify their procedures and finance agreements and to be transparent in relation to their pricing and features of products and services.

Beehive, UAE’s online marketplace for peer-to-peer (P2P) finance, has been certified as a Sharia-compliant P2P finance platform by the Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB). The SRB review was conducted over a period of several weeks in June and July 2015 during which SRB’s Sharia scholars reviewed all operational processes, documentation, and relationship management on Beehive’s Islamic platform. As the first online marketplace for P2P finance in the UAE, Beehive has channelled over AED 15 million ($4m) worth of finance to more than 32 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since its launch in November 2014. Finance requests on Beehive are processed under a ‘Commodity Murabaha’ structure, using the ‘DMCC Tradeflow’ platform.

Moody's Investors Service will hold its first Banking and Islamic Finance Workshop in Bahrain on Wednesday 2nd of September. The workshop will focus on Bahrain's banking sector amid low oil prices and global headwinds. It ill kick-off with a presentation from Jean-Francois Tremblay, Associate Managing Director, Financial Institutions Group, surrounding key global developments within credit markets. The workshop will also provide Moody's assessment of the local operating environment and the creditworthiness of banks in Bahrain and the rest of the region. In addition, the workshop will also discuss the latest developments in the Islamic Finance sector as well as growths trends and liquidity management challenges.

The Thomson Reuters Global Sukuk Index is at 117.69120 points, down from 118.20147 at the end of last month but up from 115.79726 at the end of last year. The Thomson Reuters Investment Grade Sukuk Index is at 116.46023 against 116.92144 at end-July and 113.69014 at end-2014. Some of the sukuk in the pipeline are: Malaysia's Tenaga Nasional Bhd said in late August it would raise up to 10 billion ringgit ($2.39 billion) with sukuk to build and operate a power plant project. International Finance Corp, a unit of the World Bank, planned to meet fixed income investors from Aug. 31 ahead of a potential issue of U.S. dollar-denominated sukuk. Aluminium Bahrain is seeking a credit rating ahead of talks with banks about fund-raising.

Bahrain-based Ibdar Bank has announced the appointment of Mr. Janaka Mendis as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Bank. Mr. Mendis shall provide leadership in attaining the established financial goals of the Bank through managing and operating all financial-related functions. He oversees the Bank's finance, financial strategy, and operational activities, ensuring that Ibdar is well positioned, both financially and strategically, to achieve its transformation agenda. Prior to joining Ibdar, Mr. Mendismost recently spent seven years at Al Salam Bank Bahrain. For four of these years, he served as the institution's Chief Operating Officer after holding other executive roles.

Bahrain’s GFH Financial Group has distributed dividends of $53 million to its funds’ investors, from investments in Bahrain, the UAE, US and India. In line with it's new strategy, GFH has spent the last 18 months investing in projects intended to provide steady cash yields for investors, the company said. For example, Diversified US Residential Portfolio (DURP) – an investment in US residential assets – distributed dividends of $1.3 million to investors. The portfolio comprises two multiple-dwelling residential properties, one in Houston, the other in Atlanta, with 1,300 apartments in total and 95 percent occupancy. Earlier this month, the group reported net profit of $13.6 million in the first six months of 2015.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will construct 300 schools across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to promote primary education in far-flung areas. IDB Programmed Head Shafat Hussain told a meeting of the AJK Planning and Development Department here on Sunday that besides constructing schools in remote areas, teachers of these institutes will also be provided special training. Hussain told the meeting that the project aimed to provide better education facilities to deserving children in far-flung and distant areas. AJK Director Education Syeda Geelani, Director Research Najeebur Rehman and other officials attended the meeting.

Banks in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council can thank turbulence in the world’s bond markets for spurring Islamic lending to the highest in three years. Loans that comply with Islam’s ban on interest in the GCC have risen 22 per cent this year to $11.9 billion, the most since 2012. At the same time sales of sukuk dropped 41 per cent to $6.9 billion. The increase in lending will be welcome for banks in the region, where oil’s more than 50 per cent decline in the past 12 months threatens to curtail government spending and clip economic growth. Volatility in US Treasury yields is averaging the highest since 2011 after several global developments, including Greece and China.

Turkish Islamic lenders Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi and Albaraka Turk have applied separately to issue Islamic bonds, according to Turkey's Capital Markets Board. Turkiye Finans has applied to raise up to 1.5 billion lira ($513.2 million) through its wholly-owned unit, TF Varlik Kiralama. No tenor or details of underlying assets were given for the deal, which could be sold as a public offering or to qualified investors. Albaraka Turk, a unit of Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group, has also applied to raise up to 1 billion lira through its asset-leasing company, Bereket Varlik Kiralama. The bulk of sukuk issuance in Turkey has come from the government and the country's Islamic banks, although corporate issuance is also growing.

Financial inclusion can be achieved via traditional banking offerings, but also through digital financial services such as mobile money, among other innovative approaches. The Brookings Financial and Digital Inclu­sion Project (FDIP) Report and Scorecard seeks to help answer a set of fundamental questions about today’s global financial inclusion efforts. To answer these questions, Brookings experts John D. Villasenor, Darrell M. West, and Robin J. Lewis analyzed finan­cial inclusion in 21 geographically, economically, and politically diverse countries. This year’s report and scorecard is the first of a series of annual reports examining financial inclusion activities and assessing usage of financial services in selected countries around the world.

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed Masraf Al Rayan's (MAR) A2/Prime-1 issuer ratings and baa3 baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA. At the same time, Moody's changed the outlook on the bank's long term issuer ratings to positive from stable. The change in the outlook to positive from stable reflects the ongoing improvements in MAR's business and geographic diversification, including the growth and transition to profitability of its recently acquired subsidiary Al Rayan Bank PLC based in UK. Further underpinning Moody's view on the outlook is Qatar's considerable economic strength, with robust growth prospects driven by the significant wealth and resources of the country, despite lower oil prices.

Dollar sukuk returns are turning into losses in Asia’s biggest Islamic finance markets as confidence in government leaders sours amid a regional sell off. Indonesia’s Shariah-compliant sovereign bonds due in 2024 have dropped 3.8% since April and the 2025 Malaysian debt lost 2.6%, compared with a 2.4% decline in a Bloomberg index of emerging-market conventional government notes. In that period, the rupiah plunged 6.4%, and the ringgit 13%. Both countries are grappling with an economic slowdown, falling commodity-export prices and capital outflows as the US prepares to raise interest rates. The reality is, investors have had to resign themselves to stagnant growth, so they were let down after buying into the story.

Meethaq has upgraded its core banking system, resulting in a host of Islamic banking services covering ATM/CDM, debit card and mobile banking for Meethaq customers. Meethaq now functions with the new iMal core banking system. The implementation of the system is the result from the partnership between the bank and Path Solutions. iMAL is a Shari’ah-compliant core banking system certified by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). It is an integrated, modular Islamic banking suite with full functionality, including retail, corporate, investment, trade finance, and treasury modules.