IslamicFinance.de

HM Queen Noor Al Hussein officially launched Ethmar, Jordan’s first Shari’ah-compliant microfinance institution on 8 August. Ethmar is an affiliate of the King Hussein Foundation, which promotes social equity and economic empowerment in Jordan. Jordan News Agency Petra reported Ethmar Chairman Faris Sharaf as saying three Shari’ah-compliant products would be launched in collaboration with public and private organizations in the country.

Ibdar Bank, a Bahrain-based wholesale Islamic investment bank, has reported an increase of 51 per cent in total revenues at $11.1 million for the six months ended June 30, when compared with the same period last year. A statement by the bank said total profits for the period increased by 79pc to $2.54m after an impairment charge of $2.2m relating to legacy assets. Excluding these one-off charges, said the bank, it achieved improved profitability of $4.72m when compared with $1.96m in the first half last year.

Islami Bank Bangladesh, the financier of Swan Garments over the last 30 years, plans to donate Tk 1.39 crore to clear the workers' one-month salary, the bank's Managing Director Mohammad Abdul Mannan said. Mannan hopes the bank's Board of Directors will agree to give away the fund as a lifeline to the company. The bank cannot invest further in Swan Garments, which has 1,300 workers in two units, as the company does not have any legal owner now, he said. Islami Bank will need the central bank's permission to further bankroll the factory, the loans of which have already been classified, Mannan said. Disputes over Swan's ownership need to be settled first to resume its operations, he said.

Banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council are starting to realize that if they want to capture more female customers then they need to recruit more female bankers. Samina Akram is helping empower women in Islamic Finance, running a London-based consulting firm based on Shariah-compliant finance after years running Merrill Lynch's Islamic finance wealth management business. The wheels are turning a little faster for women in the boardroom, according to leadership consulting firm Heidrick & Struggles. Its recent Board Monitor report showed that of 339 new directors appointed to Fortune 500 boardrooms in 2014, 99 were women.

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. Moody's affirmation reflects MAR's continued strong core financial fundamentals with (1) consistently strong asset quality performance, (2) strong and stable profitability and (3) solid capital buffers. The change in the outlook to positive from stable reflects the ongoing improvements in MAR's business and geographic diversification. Further underpinning Moody's view on the outlook is Qatar's considerable economic strength.

Legislation gaps are really challenging African countries’ intent to effectively issue the sukuk, which could help fund the continent’s huge infrastructure needs, Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency said on Thursday, in a new report. To date, African sovereigns have issued just about $1 billion of sukuk instruments, compared with global sukuk issuance of an average $100 billion per year over the past five years, says S&P. In Nigeria, Osun State has issued a N10 billion ($51m) sukuk yielding 14.75 percent, the first and currently the only Islamic bond from the Africa’s largest economy. S&P believes that regulations and fiscal incentives could speed Islamic Finance Development on the continent.

Seychelles-based BMI Offshore Bank (BMIO), partly owned by BMI Bank Bahrain, is being converted into a Sharia-compliant bank, it has emerged. This follows a visit to Seychelles by a delegation from BMI Bank, a subsidiary of Al Salam Bank-Bahrain (ASBB), led by the parent’s executive committee chairman Hussein Mohammed Al Meeza along with a number of senior officials. The delegation called on Seychelles President James Alix Michel in the country’s capital Victoria. During the meeting, President Michel hailed initiatives undertaken by BMIO, in which BMI Bank owns a 50 per cent stake.

A local consortium led by Al-Karam Group has offered to buy the 144.20 million shares of BankIslami Pakistan Limited (BIPL), which the bank's majority shareholder, Dubai Bank PJSC, tends to sell. The potential acquirer of BIPL's shares came in the limelight after Wednesday's stock filing of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company Limited (JSCL) in which the company disclosed that Dubai Bank PJSC had offered it, along with another shareholder of BankIslami, the saleable 14.3 percent stakes of BIPL. The Dubai Bank was bound, under the Founding Shareholders' Agreement it had signed with JICL and other stakeholders, to first ask, through issuing first refusal, the existing stakeholders if they wanted to increase their shareholdings in the bank.

For debt that’s off limits to many banks in the Gulf region, junk-rated Damac Properties Dubai Co’s securities aren’t doing badly at all. The company’s $650mn of bonds maturing April 2019 were the best-performing sukuk in Dubai during July, returning almost 70% more than their nearest rivals. Even after the gains, the yield at 6.45% remained the highest for any non-perpetual Islamic bonds in the emirate as of July 31. While most regional banks don’t hold junk-rated bonds in their books due to capital adequacy requirements, estimates that sales may quadruple this year are boosting the allure of the Dubai developer’s debt to investors seeking higher yields in anticipation of the first US interest-rate increase since 2006.

Emirates Reit yesterday posted an 8 per cent rise in first-half earnings generated by its properties, thanks to higher rents and service charge ­income. Revenue between January and June reached US$19.1 million, up 7.9 per cent from $17.7m for the same period last year. Net income grew 6 per cent to $44.7m because of a $31m gain from the revaluation of its properties. The company said its investment properties were valued at $613.4m as of June 30, up 9.6 per cent from $559.7m for the year-earlier period. Emirates Reit has $1.3m of property that is being fitted out. About $344m worth of its investment properties have been mortgaged against Islamic financing facilities.

Iran’s $415 billion economy is the second-largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia. Unveiling his nation’s economic plan for the next five years, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last month that Iran must aspire to average annual growth of 8 percent. The economy may grow 4 percent this Iranian financial year, double the pace expected before the nuclear deal, according to the deputy governor of Iran’s central bank. An OPEC member, Iran holds 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Revenue from crude sales represents just 15 percent of Iran’s GDP. Investors may prefer the car industry, manufacturing, energy and agriculture.

The Malaysian unit of Toyota Motor Corp said it plans to set up a 2.5bn-ringgit ($655mn) programme through its local financing arm Toyota Capital Malaysia in order to raise funds via both Islamic and conventional bonds. While Toyota has not revealed how much of the programme will be covered by Islamic bonds, it is expected that this part will be at least 1bn ringgit ($262mn) which is the size of Toyota Malaysia’s previous and first-ever sukuk programme, which was set up in 2008 and matured in June 2015. Proceeds will be used to strengthen the funding structure of Toyota Capital Malaysia to meet its mid-term expansion plans.

Samina Akram left her job at Merrill Lynch International Bank eight years ago to start her own consultancy in London, specialising in sharia-compliant finance. hat started as an informal ladies lunch club with other women in the industry will this week become the first global Women in Islamic & Ethical Finance Forum, a conference for more than 200 people at KPMG’s Canary Wharf offices in London. Akram, 36, who set up Samak Consultants, seeks to support women in an industry in which they face more obstacles than in conventional banking due to religious conservatism, restrictions on mixed-gender working environments and stereotypes about women in Islamic finance.

Malaysia fund house Maybank Asset Management has chosen Standard Chartered as its trustee for the first sharia-compliant fund that has been approved for Asean passporting. The Maybank Bosera Greater China Asean Equity I-Fund was approved by the Securities Commission of Malaysia for distribution under the Asean Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) in March. The fund was subsequently launched for sale in the Malaysian market in April. Maybank AM has two funds from its Singapore office that are also waiting to be passported in Malaysia and Thailand. But the contract with StanChart only covers Maybank AM Malaysia.

Nigeria’s Jaiz Bank has doled out N500 million to charity through its Jaiz Foundation. Mallam Ismail Adamu, the Group Head, Public Sector of the bank said that the bank had a capital base of N42 billion as of June, 2015 and a customer base of 139,977 with 73 per cent of them Christians. Adamu, who represented the bank’s Managing Director, Muhammad Nurul-Islam, said that the bank in 2014 made a profit of N157 million. He said that the bank renders several services ranging from Deposit, Mobile banking, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Internet banking and other Islamic services, while all haram (Illegal) money’s are given out to charity through Jaiz Foundation.

Iran has asked the government and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) to return the assets of Iranian entities remaining on the accounts of bankrupt Azerbaijani Royal Bank. Officials have appealed to the Azerbaijani government and CBA on the issue of solving the problem with the money of the Export Development Bank of Iran and other entities of the country, which remained on the accounts of Azerbaijani Royal Bank, which has declared its bankruptcy.

The Supreme Council for Women (SCW)’s general secretariat held a meeting with Al Salam Bank Bahrain during which the two sides explored means of activating the National Model for the inclusion of women’s needs in banking. The meeting also explored provision of policy and ancillary services for women in the workplace. This included a nursery for children of bank employees after a feasibility study by the bank to determine its need and support for recruitment of handicapped people in financial and banking institutions. The meeting discussed challenges facing women in assuming leading posts and cultural and social issues, especially women’s night-time office duty and their aspirations in career progression.

Two Iranian private banks – “Parsian” and “Pasargad” are interested in opening branches in Azerbaijan, the head of the secretariat of the Azerbaijani-Iranian intergovernmental commission on cooperation in trade, economic and humanitarian spheres Mehdi Mohtasham said.

The National Commercial Bank ( NCB ) has successfully settled an issuance of subordinated Additional Tier I capital Sukuk, in the amount of SAR 2 Billion, and compliant with Islamic Sharia principles through a private placement offer in Saudi Arabia. Sukuk issuances such as this are intended to strengthen the Bank's capital base in accordance with the Basel III framework and sustain its growth while maintaining healthy capital adequacy levels. Additionally, the Sukuk will continue to extend the maturity profile of NCB 's liabilities while continuing to diversify its sources of funding. NCB Capital Company acted as sole Lead Manager.

Islamic banks are growing faster than their conventional counterparts, but still focus on a limited number of core markets, according to a study made by EY. The study’s report said that Islamic banks in six main markets (Qatar, Indonesia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and Turkey) gained $625 billion by end of 2013, which is equivalent to 80 per cent of the global Islamic finance market. The report expects that total Islamic banking assets in six main markets will hit $1.8 trillion by 2019. The Islamic banking sector is expected to achieve some gains in other markets like Egypt, Pakistan and North African countries like Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.