IslamicFinance.de

The Kabulbank scam may be the largest theft of depositor money per capita the world has ever experienced. Kabulbank was Afghanistan’s largest bank when the central bank intervened on September 2010. It was put into receivership on April 20, 2011. New Kabul Bank (NKB) was established the same day by transferring old Kabulbank’s remaining deposit liabilities covered by an equivalent amount of claims on the central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB). Kabulbank’s deposits had dropped from $1.3 billion eight months earlier to under $0.6 billion by the time of its good bank/bad bank split.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), has announced Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) as the women’s empowerment partner for Islamic Banking for the year-long campaign to celebrate and promote the role of women in the financial and banking sector. The year-long campaign has already featured a series of events, including a number of roundtable and town hall sessions that have brought industry leaders and women of all levels within the sector together to discuss and debate topics of importance. These events culminate with the main Women in the Financial and Banking Sector Conference being held on Nov. 30, at the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Bay.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), has announced Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) as the women’s empowerment partner for Islamic Banking for the year-long campaign to celebrate and promote the role of women in the financial and banking sector. The year-long campaign has already featured a series of events, including a number of roundtable and town hall sessions that have brought industry leaders and women of all levels within the sector together to discuss and debate topics of importance. These events culminate with the main Women in the Financial and Banking Sector Conference being held on Nov. 30, at the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Bay.

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. In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo reshuffled his Cabinet last week as he looks set to miss his 2014 election pledge to boost annual growth to 7% and as infrastructure spending falls short. Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is embroiled in controversy after a probe revealed he received RM2.6 billion in donations from the Middle East. He denied taking money for personal gain and has also reshuffled the Cabinet, including removing his deputy.

The sukuk market has slowed – nine syndicated deals had been sold as of August 13, the lowest number of deals for that period since 2010, when three were completed. They raised a total of $5.7 billion, the lowest value since 2011's $4.2 billion. The pipeline is filled with financial institutions. The Islamic Development Bank in June more than doubled the size of its sukuk programme to $25 billion from $10 billion. Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation, a multilateral development bank headquartered in Saudi established a $3 billion sukuk programme in July.

Iran and Azerbaijan discuss creation of a joint bank and the opening of branches of the two countries' banks in Baku and Tehran. There is a branch of Bank Melli Iran in Azerbaijan, but it is not active, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said, adding that preliminary talks on these issues were already held. Branches of the new bank will operate in both Azerbaijan and Iran.

A.M. Best this week moved Abu Dhabi National Takaful Co. (ADNTC) from stable to positive with a financial strength rating of B++. ADNTC’s solid risk adjusted capitalization and track record of excellent underwriting processes are reflected in the new ratings. These positive factors were partially offset by an accumulated deficit within the policyholders’ fund and a modest, albeit growing, business profile. The revised outlook reflects ADNTC’s improved balance of earnings between policyholder and shareholder funds and enhanced enterprise risk management.

Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) is inviting nominations for candidates to serve on its technical boards that are tasked to carry out development and revision of its international Islamic finance standards. The technical boards in AAOIFI currently consist of Shari'a Board as well as Accounting and Auditing Standards Board. It is proposed that AAOIFI Accounting and Auditing Standards Board will be split into two new technical boards, namely AAOIFI Accounting Board and AAOIFI Governance and Ethics Board. These two boards will be responsible for AAOIFI standards on accounting, auditing, ethics and governance. Meanwhile, AAOIFI Shari'a Board will continue to be responsible for AAOIFI Shari'a standards.

Jahangir Siddiqui and Company is going to increase its stake in BankIslami Pakistan by at least 7.4% in coming weeks. According to a note sent out to members of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Tuesday, the board of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company has decided to make a long-term equity investment of Rs749.3 million in BankIslami by purchasing 74.9 million shares from Dubai Bank PJSC at Rs10 per share. The shareholding of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company in BankIslami was 21.2% as on June 30. The total stake of the financial conglomerate in the Islamic lender will stand at 28.7% in case the company’s shareholders approve the equity investment decision taken by the board.

Helped by growing awareness of Sharia’a-compliant banking services and increasing number of branches, the Islamic banking sector in the sultanate recorded robust growth during the first half of 2015. The combined assets of the sector surged 64 per cent to RO1.83bn as of June 30, 2015 against RO1.11bn a year ago. Islamic banking now accounts for 6.3 per cent of the total banking assets in Oman. Total financing by Islamic banks and windows jumped by 85 per cent to RO1.38bn from RO745mn. Oman's Islamic banking sector comprises two fully-fledged Islamic banks (Bank Nizwa and alizz islamic bank) and six Islamic banking windows of locally incorporated commercial banks.

GCC Board Directors Institute ("BDI") has appointed H+K Strategies ("H+K") as content partner to the Institute for a period of three years. The other content partners are PwC, McKinsey & Co, Heidrick& Struggles and Allen &Overy, while supported by the Capital Market Authorities in Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, Qatar Financial Centre and the Central Bank of Bahrain. Launched in 2007, BDI is the pre-eminent organization for boards and directors in the Gulf helping boards become more effective so that organizations may perform better and grow. In its capacity of content partner, H+K will contribute with knowledge on matters critical to board effectiveness in today's multi-faceted and high-speed communications environment.

In Turkey almost all businesses are micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (MSME), and only 0.1 percent of businesses are large firms. MSME lending constitutes a significant share of banks’ lending – it was 26% of the total banks’ portfolio in 2013, including 7% extended to microenterprises, despite the naturally much smaller average loan amounts. There are several barriers preventing Turkish banks from increasing their lending to microenterprises, despite an interest in reaching further down market. One such barrier is the high level of informality and semi-formality in the micro-segment of the Turkish MSME sector. Turkey has no dedicated microfinance sector of a significant scale.

The recently released report “State of the Global Islamic Economy” commissioned by Dubai Islamic Economy Development Center and produced by business intelligence provider Thomson Reuters is highlighting a lot of new trends in the Islamic economy. However, and most importantly, the report points out that the Islamic economy is embracing the digital age which it sees as a “new frontier” in the Muslim world. The digital age will also bring Islamic finance a big step forward, another recent report, “The Digital Islamic Services Landscape“ authored by consultancy Deloitte and sponsored by Kuwait-based Noor Telecom, points out, highlighting the huge untapped potential of the digital Islamic services market.

With the age-old funding challenges that Small, Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) have to contend with and the steady ascendancy of non-interest banking, analysts x-ray the possibility of Islamic banking bridging the funding gap in the SME sector, writes Olaseni Durojaiye. Reacting to enquiries on capital markets as a source of access to fund by SMEs, Chief Executive Officer of Global Analytics Derivatives, Tope Fasua, had contended that the Nigeria Capital Market was not accustomed to providing financing for SMEs at the present and argued that this may be due to issues bordering on sharp practices on the part of some of the listed corporation and companies in the bourse.

The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with FPCCI Standing Committee on Islamic Banking and Takaful organised a seminar on Islamic banking. Speaking at the occasion, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri said that there should be full-fledged Islamic banks on micro finance to support SMEs as currently no Islamic bank was focusing on SMEs with better products. He stressed that the branches of Islamic banks should be enhanced in the country to provide more consumer outreach as the insufficient branch network and lack of awareness in general masses were the major hurdle in the growth of Islamic banking.

Time dotCom Bhd plans to raise RM1bil under its proposed Sukuk programme 2015-2035. RAM Ratings said on Tuesday it had assigned a preliminary rating of AA3/Stable to the Islamic medium-term notes (MTN) programme. The rating reflects Time dotCom’s sound business position in the fixed-line space and the earnings diversity from its international bandwidth business as well as data centre. Nonetheless, the rating is constrained by Time dotCom’s small market share compared to its larger rival’s. RAM Ratings said the proceeds would be used to expand its fibre footprint, further develop its data operations, refinancing of credit facilities and working capital requirements.

Saudi Arabian dairy producer Almarai will issue a senior sukuk of up to 2 billion riyals ($533 million) to help finance investment plans, it said on Tuesday in a statement published on the bourse website. The sukuk will be offered to local investors and is subject to market conditions, it said in its statement, adding it had mandated HSBC Saudi Arabia and Samba Capital and Investment Management Co to act as joint lead managers.

There is little doubt that real estate as an asset class has become more important since the financial crisis with billions of dollars of investment emanating from the GCC and Muslim jurisdictions increasingly seeking Shariah compliant investment opportunities in key global real estate markets. With recent GBP1.35 billion financing of the Battersea Power Station - one of the largest real estate financings in the UK in recent years, the IREF Summit comes at a good timing. This year's IREF Summit provides a focused platform to discuss key issues, identify opportunities and forge new business relationships. For further information on the Summit please visit www.irefsummit.co.uk or contact info@icg-events.com

Seychelles-registered Bank of Muscat International Offshore (BMIO) is considering introducing Islamic finance to the 115-island country. The Al Salam Bank of Bahrain, which owns 50% of shares in BMIO, is talking with the Seychelles authorities about future plans following the recent approval of BMIO’s reorganisation. Details of the reorganisation are complex, but the governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles, Caroline Abel, says it took about 8 months for everything to complete. An Al Salam delegation was in the country in July to talk about making BMIO a Shari’ah-compliant bank.

Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt is currently negotiating with four real estate investment firms to take part in the central bank's social housing initiative, Product Manager-Mortgage Unit Mahmoud Idris said. Idris stated that the bank is to sign a protocol with one of those companies this week. He refused to reveal the names of the four firms before finishing the agreements. In 2014, Egypt's Central Bank (CBE) launched a new initiative worth 10 billion Egyptian pounds (US$1.4 billion) to stimulate the mortgage sector.