IslamicFinance.de

It is possible for Turkey to appear as a key market for Islamic finance while Asia continues to drive the industry’s growth but markets are still evaluating the full impact of the global downturn on the sector.
Because of the recent growth of the sector together with the launch of several Islamic funds and a law granting tax neutrality to sukuk products, it is tought that Turkey will be the next growth market for sharia finance.

It appears that the mainstream Islamic finance industry has not directly got involved in the sector in any important way.
The Jeddah Declaration for the Achieving Food Security for example has mandated the IDB to allocate more resources to the agricultural sector, which any is a key component of the ordinary approvals of the group's regular financing facilities.
There are distinguishing exceptions especially in countries that are primary agricultural commodity producers and exporters including Turkey and Malaysia.

The Second Annual Islamic Finance Forum will gather investors, borrowers and regulators in the same place to accomplish a better understanding of existing instruments of Islamic Finance and to find answers to problems encountered frequently in the course of doing business.
The forum delegates is amde of representatives from the Embassies of UAE, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

Mohammad Yahya Maroufi, secretary general of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), revealed that his organization has agreed to certify a bank to promote economic cooperation with banks in the Islamic countries.
He added that the plans include to open a trade market for its member states.
The ECO curent members are: Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Bank Mellat prooved to have the the biggest increase in profits among all banks active in Turkey over the first six months of the year. It had profits in Turkey of 32.6 million liras ($18.5 million) in the first half, a 217% increase over last year's figure for the same period of 10.3 million and the biggest increase among banks in Turkey.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P) has the strong oppinion that Turkey's Islamic banks could persist recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image.
Besides the growth of the total sector assets accounting for about five % of total system assets, this sector has also encountered other developments like: A law conferring tax neutrality on Sukuk products;A $100 million debut Sukuk by Kuveyt Türk (not rated); the launch of several Shari’ah-compliant funds; and The creation of a domestic index of Shari’ah-compliant banks and companies by the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

Egypt has renewed interest in the growing sector of Islamic banking and finance in an effort to rebuild the economy of the country using internal methods of financing.
Part of the country's pursuit will be to launch a sovereign Sukuk, or bond, program within months. It would be Egypt's first sovereign Sukuk, ahead of country states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Jordan aditionally mature markets such as Great Britain and France.

Amrahbank and Turkapital Holding BSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The reason is to set up a cooperative working partnership in areas of common interest, the purpose being to encourage cooperation between the parties in the areas of direct investment opportunities in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Mr. Fawaz Al-Issa, Chief Executive Officer of Turkapital and Mr. Emil Mammadov, Chairman of the Management Board of Amrahbank signed the agreement.

Bank Asya is arranging a small acquisition of between $10-20 million in a Balkan country in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank.
hief Executive Abdullah Celik stated that Bank Asya itself was always drawing attention of bid offers but these were well below the bank's potential.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Amrahbank OJSC and Turkapital Holding CJSC in order to set up a cooperative working partnership in areas of common interest.
The bank states that the objective of this agreement is to encourage cooperation between the parties in the areas of direct investment opportunities in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Fawaz Al-Issa, chief executive officer of Turkapital and Emil Mammadov, chief executive officer of Amrahbank signed the agreement.

Because of the high consumer loans and outstanding credit card bills, Turkey’s leading bankers have pointed out that people should be more careful when spending their money.
Data show that consumer loans alone rose 42 % in 2010, while credit card debt grew 24 %.
Taking Turkey’s large youth population and strong economic growth in consideration, Hüseyin Ayd?n, Turkish Banks Association (TBB) chairman and Ziraat Bank head, said it is normal to see a rise in consumer spending in a stable economy.

G Capital in partnership with Gürmen Group, has acquired Adabank in Turkey for US$ 75 million. Gulf Finance House (GFH), G Capital’s parent company, has a long track record in establishing and operating financial institutions across the MENA region, institutions like: Arab Finance House (Lebanon 2003), Solidarity (Bahrain – 2004), First Leasing Bank (Bahrain - 2004), Khaleeji Commercial Bank (Bahrain - 2005), Asian Finance Bank (Malaysia - 2006), Qinvest (Qatar - 2006) and First Energy Bank (Bahrain -2008).

DinarStandard™ publicized a listing of 50 Leading Business Schools of the OIC member countries. The listing reveales how OIC based Business Schools are giving leading regional employers access to top talent from within their own neighborhoods with unique expertise in Islamic finance, social entrepreneurship and innovation management.
Some of the insights presented in the listing are:
- Accreditation: Eight B-Schools from the list are AACSB accredited (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.) AACSB is generally regarded as the standard for MBA programs (all US top 20 MBA programs have AACSB accreditation.)
- Geographic breakdown: B-Schools from 16 countries are represented on the list. Malaysia has the highest representation with 8 B-Schools on the list. This is followed by 6 each from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
- Most of the programs are English language based and 47 of the 50 on the list offer full-time MBA program.

The CEO of Kuwait Finance House-Turkey, Ufuk iwan, emphasized that the Islamic banking industry has reinforced its competitiveness during the economic crisis, and that Islamic banks weren't so vulnerable any more in front of the impact of the crisis that their traditional counterparts, since they deal in real products instead of relying on offering loans.
He added that by the end of 2010, Islamic banking assets reached 83 % of total Islamic assets in general, followed by sukuk 11 % and Islamic funds 4.6 %.

Earlier this year, the Istanbul Stock Exchange issued an index of Sharia compliant banks and companies. That attracted the media very much.
It has been made clear that these banks do not charge interest, or “riba”, because it is forbidden according to Islamic law. The way that these banks operate remains unknown.
Four participation banks are currently operational in Turkey: al Baraka, Bank Asya, Kuveyt Türk, and Türkiye Finans. These banks offer a wide range of services, including savings and checking accounts, house and automobile financing, and even Islamic bonds.

Because of the strict rules of Islamic finance, many countries have avoided the worst of the 2008 economic meltdown. Now officials in the Russian republic of Tatarstan are hoping that Islamic finance can help them attract direct investment from Muslim nations around the world.
Delegates from as far afield as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates were welcomed last week in a summit on Islamic finance in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

Hillary Clinton brought together hundreds of first, second-generation Americans or Americans-to-be at the Secretary’s Global Diaspora Forum in Washington DC, the reason being to put diversity into work.
It is well known that America ranks first among countries with the largest number of international migrants. That is seen as a potential in America’s national strategy of employing smart-power.
$46 billion is the amount of remittances sent by US Diaspora in 2010, according to the State Department, almost twice the $28.7 billion US Official Development Assistant in 2009. As Hillary Clinton once said: "Using people-to-people exchange is the core of smart power”.

Noor Islamic Bank expects to win at least two mandates to help sell sukuk out of Turkey this year. The statement was given by Chief Executive Officer Hussain Al Qemzi.

Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), participated at the OIC–Turkey Special Forum on Building Productive Capacities for Poverty Eradication. The OIC took place on 11 May 2011 and was held in Istanbul, Turkey.
The participants accorded importance to immediate implementation of the OIC Executive Framework for Agriculture, Rural development and Food Security and acknowledged the on-going efforts within the OIC to encourage investment in the agricultural sector in land-rich OIC Member States.

Adnan Ahmed Yousif, chairman of the Union of Arab Banks (UAB), states that banks from the Gulf are looking to acquire Turkish banks .
The statement given at the “Enhancing Shamgen Banking: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan” conference in Istanbul reveiled that Arab banks like Al Rajah Bank, Qatar National Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank want to become established in Turkey by purchasing a national bank.