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The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and Afriland First Bank have signed an agreement in which both parties will cooperate to establish an Islamic Window in Ivory Coast. The cooperation reflects ICD's ambition to promote Islamic Finance in its member countries and support its growing presence and activities in Africa. The agreement was signed by Khaled Mohammed Al-Aboodi, CEO and Managing Director of ICD and Olivier Dadjeu Kengne, CEO and Managing Director of Afriland First Bank Ivory Coast. Both directors expressed their strong support for the partnership. The partnership with ICD aims to diversify Afriland First Bank's activities and meet the needs its customers, particularly the needs of a large Muslim community, which is actively involved in trades.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has launched a new automated complaint management system, a system that helps customers to track the status of an issue and to understand what is happening at every step in the process. The complaint management system is accessible by all employees, ensuring that every person working for the bank is able to contribute to improving customer service. The moment a request/complaint is logged into the system, a text message (SMS) is sent to the customer providing a unique reference number related to the inquiry. This allows QIB customers to get easy updates on the status of their complaint any time. Upon a suitable resolution of each case, QIB customers receive a closing/confirmation SMS. Constantinos Constantinides, the bank's chief strategy officer said the new system would increase customers’ satisfaction and maintain their loyalty to QIB.

UAE-based telecommunications provider 'du' has been selected by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) to deliver opex-driven co-location services in the UAE. ADIB will be able to develop its operations with a foundation in secure data centre infrastructure as well as flexible and scalable network options. Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du, said the company's Data Centre and Managed Services are designed to enable rapid growth. ADIB will drive new cost-efficiencies while benefiting from infrastructure that is ready to scale and adapt as its business grows. du provides an ecosystem of network infrastructure to give customers easy access to Cloud service providers and markets across the MENA region. du’s data centre services won the best Enterprise Service award at Telecoms World Awards 2016.

Dubai has announced it is in advanced discussions to set up the Shari'a compliant Emirates Trade Bank which will specialise in international trade and commodity financing. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of the Executive Council, has nominated a founding committee for the establishment of the bank. Emirates Trade Bank will be the first of its kind global Shari’a compliant bank exclusively offering integrated trade solutions, through mobilising the infrastructure and logistics ecosystem of the UAE. Sami Al Qamzi, vice chairman of the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), said the Emirates Trade Bank is set to reap synergies from Dubai's strategic positioning. On Tuesday, Sheikh Hamdan said Dubai is set to launch ambitious projects as part of a plan to transform the city into the capital of the Islamic economy by 2021.

Emirates Islamic (EI) plans to complete a Dh1.5 billion ($408 million) fund-raising from existing shareholders by early December. Chief executive Jamal Bin Ghalaita said EI was not expecting a pick up in the banking market until the second half of 2017 at the earliest, once an upswing in oil prices happens. EI announced plans for the rights issue on Thursday, saying it would increase its paid up share capital to Dh5.43 billion from Dh3.93 billion. EI, which has recorded falling net profits for the past three quarters, is due to report third-quarter results later this month. Bin Ghalaita said the outlook remained uncertain. He added that EI planned no further job losses after some cuts mainly within the department servicing small and medium-sized enterprises.

In #India Jammu and Kashmir Bank is willing to offer Islamic banking to its customers. Chairman Parvez Ahmad said there was great demand for Islamic Banking in the state, so the bank would examine the proposal after taking the Reserve Bank on board. As far as the JK Bank positioning is concerned, it has 63% share on the asset side, 62% share on the deposit side, out of 862 branches, 745 are in the state, out of 1030 ATMs, 950 in JK state, 90% of the population is dealing with JK Bank. Ahmad added that other banks were only offering products and services, JK Bank was more concerned about the development of JK state as a whole.

According to Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) Chairman, Sakir Ercan Gül, Bank Asya's shareholders need to wait until the end of the bank's liquidation process to receive their remaining funds. Gül said the process of paying deposits would not be immediately initiated and the finalization of the liquidation process would be delayed. The law regarding deposits grants a three-month period for payments, which will expire this month. There are nearly TL 2 billion ($653 million) worth of deposits in the bank, including TL 950 million worth of insured deposits. If the bank has any remaining funds after the liquidation process, these will be distributed to the bank's shareholders in accordance with the percentage of their shares. According to Gül, the bank is now hovering between bankruptcy and liquidation.

Creditors of Kuwait's debt-laden Investment Dar are forming a team to restructure 813 million dinars ($2.7 billion) in debt. Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank, the Islamic investment company's largest creditor, is taking charge of forming the committee, which will be responsible for representing the roughly 70 to 80 creditors in negotiations with Investment Dar. Any deal remains complicated by a rise in the number of legal cases against Investment Dar. Another complication is that Investment Dar has been in legal dispute with Commercial Bank of Kuwait over part of its nearly 20% stake in Kuwait's Boubyan Bank, which is one of the assets it aims to hand over to creditors.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has partnered with Fidor Bank to launch the region’s first 'community based digital bank'. The new platform is designed to fit the lifestyle of millennial consumers also known as Generation Y. Fidor Bank is Europe’s original digital challenger bank. The bank centres around an online community, where users can exchange financial advice and also help co-create banking products. According to CEO of ADIB, Tirad Al Mahmoud, the new platform will allow users to completely change the way they bank and manage their finances using digital technology to serve all their banking needs. The 'new digital bank' will be available for existing and new customers to sign up to in the upcoming months.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has cut more than 200 jobs over the past three months. The cuts were made mostly in the retail business and about 100 people were dismissed last month. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank joins other lenders in the U.A.E. that have cut jobs to adjust to slower economic growth after oil prices halved over the past two years. Union National Bank dismissed about 50 people in August, while Emirates NBD, the nation’s biggest bank, reduced its workforce by more than 250 people at its small and medium enterprise and Islamic lending businesses in April.

Saudi Arabia’s central bank has asked local banks to reschedule consumer loans after the government cut bonuses and other financial perks for public sector workers. The cabinet announced this week that it would slash ministers’ salaries by 20% and reduce a range of allowances for public employees. In addition, the government said it would base salary payments on the Western calendar rather than the Islamic calendar; since the latter is about 11 days shorter. This is expected to reduce income further. Banks are currently negotiating with the central bank to be allowed to deduct up to 40% of customers’ salary payments to service their consumer loans, instead of the 33% currently permitted. If the central bank declines, banks will discuss raising interest rates on the loans.

Bahrain's central bank has proposed new governance rules that would require Islamic banks to conduct external sharia audits of their operations, representing a shift away from the long-held practice of self-regulation. Islamic banks in the Gulf have traditionally used in-house boards of Islamic scholars to determine whether religious principles are being obeyed. Some scholars argue that this decentralised approach allows more flexibility and diversity in Islamic finance. Bahrain's central bank said that a public consultation period for its draft rules would close on Oct. 16. These provisions could place Bahrain among the strictest jurisdictions for sharia scholars.

According to a recent Fitch Ratings report, major Saudi banks continue to report liquidity coverage ratios (LCRs) above 100% despite a 30% outflow of government-related deposits. The banks’ ability to withstand such a shock demonstrates that their liquidity positions are resilient. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) released $5.3 billion (20 billion Saudi riyals) of government-related deposits into the banking sector yesterday. According to Fitch Ratings, Saudi banks will continue to adopt careful liquidity management strategies in order to protect their LCRs from falling below current levels.

Kuwait Finance House-Malaysia (KFH-Malaysia) is taking steps towards expanding its operations in Sarawak on top of the two existing branches at present. CEO David Power reinstated KFH's commitment to grow and expand after paying a courtesy call on Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem. He added that there were 15 branches throughout Malaysia since its establishment in 2006, two of them in Sarawak. He noted they were evaluating the performance of the two existing branches first and consider to set up another branch. KFH Malaysia is looking forward to stronger business ties in the state in the long term to provide Islamic financial services and products to the people of Sarawak.

#Kazakhstan based SK Leasing (SKL) announced that it has engaged Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) to help the company achieve Shari'a Compliance in its business activities. Managing director Duman Nurbayev said SKL is going to be the first leasing company in Kazakhstan to be fully converted into Sharia compliant activities. Also, they are planning to be the first company in the CIS region which will provide a wide range of Islamic Financial products and services. SKL finances projects in the real economy sector for renovation, modernization and expansion of fixed assets. SKL has 3 domestic offices and approximately 240 clients. Its regional network includes representations in Almaty, Astana and Atyrau.

According to S&P Global Ratings, banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries will remain under pressure for the remainder of 2016 and 2017. The operating environments in these emerging markets are suffering from the effects of low commodity prices and weakening local currencies outside the GCC. S&P thinks that not only will banks' loan growth decline, but profitability will also drop. On a positive note, S&P thinks that the deterioration will be largely controlled and that banks have the capacity to absorb the negative impacts thanks to their strong asset quality, good profitability, and strong capitalisation.

Turkey’s Saving Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF) has probed more than 1.6 mn bank accounts because a number of public institutions wanted to learn whether any of their employees had an account with Bank Asya. The bank was linked to the controversial Gülen movement, which was believed to be the mastermind behind the failed July 15 coup attempt. In line with these probes, some 700,000 people have been searched since the end of 2013. When suspending public officials after the failed coup attempt, one of the main criteria under consideration was whether they were a Bank Asya customer and if they had made financially suspicious banking transactions. Turkish regulators canceled the banking license of Islamic lender Bank Asya on July 24.

Retail-focused Islamic banks in GCC countries have strong liquidity coverage ratios (LCRs) due to their large base of core retail customer deposits and low reliance on market-sensitive wholesale funding. According to Moody’s, retail deposits in 2015 comprised around 67% of Islamic banks’ customer deposits for the three GCC countries, compared to 40 for conventional banks. Islamic banks in GCC countries have become systemically important and continue to increase their market penetration, outpacing conventional banks. Sustained lower oil prices continue to reduce the flow of deposits and could lead to a gradual weakening of the LCR metrics for both Islamic and conventional banks.

In this interview deputy CEO of Bank Islam in Malaysia, Khairul Kamarudin, talks about the challenges Bank Islam had to face during the years. The bank had heavy losses in 2005 and 2006 and had to manage the misconceptions of the public as well. Today, Bank Islam’s customers have grown to more than 5 million. The bank was one of the four founding Islamic banks to form a consortium that launched the Investment Account Platform (IAP) in 2015. The IAP platform facilitates direct investment by investors into viable ventures of their choice. Bank Islam is involved in several social projects and foundations, like the Projek Bantuan Rumah (Housing Aid Project) and Promoting Intelligence, Nurturing Talent and Advocating Responsibility (PINTAR) Foundation.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced exemption from KIBOR as benchmark rate for Participatory (Musharika & Modaraba) and Wakalah-based products. For this exemption Islamic Banking Institutions (IBIs) will be required to ensure some conditions. IBIs will take adequate measures to mitigate equity investment risk in participatory mode based products. In addition, for Modaraba and Musharika based products, IBIs will ensure compliance with minimum Shariah requirements and AAOIFI Shariah Standard No 12 and No 13 as adopted by the SBP. For Wakalah-based products, IBIs will be required to use Arabic version of AAOIFI Shariah Standard No 23 on Agency as guideline in consultation with their Shariah Board.