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Ajman Bank generated net income of Dh33.5 million (US$9.1m) during last year, compared to profit of Dh6.9m a year earlier. However, Ajman's fourth-quarter profits fell 29.5 per cent to Dh8.3m. The bank did not provide detailed financial statements or an explanation of the drop in quarterly income. Ajman said its increase in income was mainly generated through corporate banking, lending to small and mid-sized businesses and treasury operations. The bank's revenues and shares rose as well.

Emirati nationals are "blindly" signing up for personal loans that they are unable to pay back later, according to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, UAE deputy prime minister. Because of this, UAE authorities set aside AED1.05bn (US$410m) for the Nationals' Defaulted Debts Settlement Fund, a programme aimed at clearing defaulted debts owed by Emirati nationals. Any person that with personal loan debts and not commercial or trade loans unpaid before December 2011 will have it covered by the programme. 17 banks take part in the fund which has dealt with approximately half of the 3,200 registered Emirati applicants.

Geopolitics have a growing weight on consumer banking in Dubai because it is the Middle East's banking centre and geographically close to major countries targeted by sanctions. In theory, as long as money does not have criminal links or belong to people or companies directly targeted by international sanctions, banks should be able to accept it. But in practice, the costs of checking that rules are obeyed have become so high that banks are turning down some deposits in advance. The costs of regulatory compliance could slow Dubai's banking growth. Especially Syrian, Iranian and U.S. citizens are being affected by this concern.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) group announced its financial results for last year, reporting a net profit of Dhs1.19bn, an increase of 13% compared to 2011. DIB's Board of Directors also recommended the distribution of a cash dividend of 15%, subject to regulatory and general assembly approvals. In general, the financial results show healthy growth across the bank's operations, confirmed by Fitch Ratings recently, that gave the bank a Long-term Issuer Default Rating at 'A' with a stable outlook.

Dubai aims to become a top global centre for Islamic bonds by introducing more detailed standards about issuance and trading. The emirate hopes the new standards will reduce disputes between scholars, issuers and investors over what types of debt structures are permissible and attract more business to its market. Last month, Dubai Financial Market (DFB) published a draft of its proposals, which the industry can comment. DFB plans to issue the final version of the standards in March.

Mashreq has reported a net profit of AED1.3 billion for the last year, constituting a 60 per cent increase on the previous year. The annual increase is on the back of fee income and investment income. The board has proposed a cash dividend of 38% subject to Central Bank and shareholder approval. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Mashreq, H.E. Abdul-Aziz Al Ghurair, the sucess of Mashreq in 2012 is based on commitment to customer centricity and staying at the leading edge of banking innovation. The bank also received several awards last year.

The Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC (DIB) intends to acquire 100 per cent of Tamweel PJSC, the UAE-based Islamic home finance provider. DIB is the major shareholder of Tamweel, and will offer the other shareholders ten DIB shares for every 18 Tamweel shares. After approval by all regulators the date of the offer will be communicated individually to all Tamweel shareholders giving them adequate time to respond.

Without causing much noise, liquidity-rich Arab banks have been taking part in commodity trade finance - an area which, until recently, was dominated by a small number of French banks. While the market share of eurozone banks has decreased from 80% two years ago to 50% today, banks from the Gulf region become more and more present. The lending limitations of the eurozone banks is caused by constrained US dollar liquidity.

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According ot a report by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, a trend to develop and globalize the sukuk market is being set. Since conventional banks worldwide tend to producing fewer and shorter loans, companies look for an alternative in terms of financing. In this case, it is very probable that Islamic financial instruments become a significant source of funding, particularly in the GCC and Asia. While these regions mark the center of a huge estimated $1 trillion market, they also need high capital for developing their infrastructure.

The UAE central bank wants lenders to extend maturities on certain personal loans held by UAE citizens by more than five years. In the latest circular sent to banks, the regulator wishes to reschedule citizen's loans by more than 48 months if the repayment exceeds 50% of gross salary and other income. This is to help UAE's citizens to carry high debt burden, since they took out massive personal loans during the boom years between 2003 to 2008 but found themselves unable to pay them back as the cause of global financial crisis.

S&P Indices made an anouncement that a new Index will be launched due to increase in the demand for a shariah-compliant benchmark in Islamic countries. The new S&P/OIC COMCEC 50 Shariah Index will measure the performance of 50 leading Shariah-compliant companies from members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Eligible countries and territories for the Index are: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Barwa Bank and National Petroleum Services Group (NPS) made an agreement to refinance an existing syndication and support its expansion and working capital. All this will be worth QR529m.
NPS group provides drilling and well services to customers in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the Middle East, North Africa, Far East, and Europe.
Its state-of-the-art equipment and sectorial services are embracing Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Libya, and Iraq.

Sharjah Islamic Bank has announced that its profits in the third quarter of the current year reached Dhs191.6m. The lender's balance sheet grew since December 2009 with total assets reaching Dhs16.3bn compared with Dhs16.0bn, the bank said. Total liquid assets increased by Dhs410.2m 12.9% to reach Dhs3.6bn.

With high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in the GCC are seen as the most active in management their wealth during later life, over 90 percent reject the idea of getting retire, according to Barclays Wealth latest Insights report.
The report titled The Age Illusion: How the Wealthy are Redefining Their Retirement is the twelfth in the Barclays Wealth Insights series, shows that HNWIs in Saudi Arabia (92 percent), United Arab Emirates (91 percent) and Qatar (89 percent) illustrated the biggest desire amongst global respondents to keep working in later life. According to the findings of the report the retirement is being rejected by a new breed of wealthy worker, who want to carry on working for as long as they are able.

Allfunds Bank, the business-to-business fund platform, has launched an Islamic Services Unit to comply with Sharia principles. The company, jointly owned by the Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo groups, offers over 80 sharia-compliant funds from asset management firms based in Luxembourg, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The unit has a fatwa endorsed by the Sharia'h Board of Amanie Dubai, a specialist Islamic consultancy firm, making it the first sharia-compliant platform.
Allfunds said its clients would have direct access to the largest available range of Islamic funds and it would take further opportunities to expand the service, such as setting up a dedicated website for the sector.

In line with its commitment to achieve higher Emiratization rates, Emirates Islamic BankEmirates Islamic BankLoading... (EIBEIBLoading...), one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE participated in the 10th annual Careers Show which was held from 28th to 30th March 2010 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center.

Bank Sarasin-Alpen (ME) Limited, a subsidiary of Bank Sarasin & Co. Ltd, a leading Swiss private bank announced today the publication of its Islamic Wealth Management Report 2010. The report provides investors with an in-depth overview of the various asset classes in Islamic wealth management along with a synopsis of the market scenario during the past 18 months.

The following news has been placed in summary at the website given.

TADAWUL EDGES LOWER
ADX GAINS 0.78 PERCENT
DFM SEES SLIGHT DROP
NEW GLOBAL STANDARDS ISSUED FOR ISLAMIC DERIVATIVES
DUBAI'S DEBT IS $109BN, SAYS IMF
GULF STATES SHOULD DROP DOLLAR PEG, SAYS HEDGE FUND CHIEF
OMAN'S 2009 BUDGET DEFICIT SMALLER THAN PLANNED
DUBAI AIMING FOR BUDGET SURPLUS IN 2011
TADAWUL DIPS 0.55 PERCENT
ADX EDGES HIGHER
DFM SEES SLIGHT GAIN
MAF ASSET MANAGEMENT TRIMS FUND SIZE
WORLD BANK TO PROVIDE $250M LOAN TO IRAQ
NATIONAL BONDS DISTRIBUTES 3.53 PERCENT PROFIT
BAHRAIN'S ARCAPITA CUTS JOBS BY 15 PERCENT
RAS AL KHAIMAH RATED 'A' BY STANDARD AND POOR'S

Please read the website to get the full summary of the news.