IslamicFinance.de

BNP Paribas-INCEIF Centre for Islamic Wealth Management (CIWM) organised a conference on "Malaysia, the Future Global Private Banking Hub: Opportunities and Challenges". It showed that current trends towards regional financial integration have presented significant opportunities into the pool of savings of Asia’s expanding middle class, now more than 2.6 million high net worth individuals. These trends show the increasing demand for private banking by HNWIs with taste for more sophisticated consumer finance and wealth management products.

According to the finance minister, Luxembourg has issued its first 200 million euro ($254 million) five-year Islamic bond, distributed across 29 accounts, although the market favours dollar-denomineted sukuk. Nevertheless the country thereby becomes the first AAA-rated government to issue euro-denominated sukuk, or Islamic bonds, following London, Hong Kong and South Africa. Luxembourg hired HSBC, BNP Paribas, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg and Qatar-based QInvest to arrange its sukuk.

The Dubai International Financial Centre has launched the Qualified Investor Fund (QIF) targeting wealthy investors. It requires a registration process of 48 hours. QIFs offer a short time to market solution for asset managers. The DIFC houses over 400 regulated entities and over a 1,000 companies with over 80 firms managing assets and over 2,000 funds marketed from the DIFC.

Dubai World’s biggest creditors have agreed on a deal to renegotiate its debt repayment schedule, Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum has confirmed. Shaikh Ahmed, who is also Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chief Executive of Emirates airline and Group, ruled out any flotations of Dubai’s state-owned companies, including Emirates airline and air travel service provider dnata. Dubai World, under the revised plan, will repay the $4.4 billion tranche due in May 2015 early — likely in December or January depending on the progress of negotiations — in exchange for the $10.3 billion 2018 payment being extended until 2022. The new 2022 payment will also be augmented in a number of ways aimed at persuading creditors to grant more time.

The synergy between the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) and its parent company Masraf Al Rayan will soon be reflected in the British bank’s name. Customers were informed last week that the new name for IBB to be adopted towards the end of the year will be Al Rayan Bank. Sultan Choudhury, chief executive officer of IBB, emphasised in the letter he sent out last week informing customers about the name change that the bank remains British regulated with a British board. The bank has invested heavily in its internet banking capability which has opened up its services to a much broader customer base. Its latest data also shows a big surge in non-Muslim customers.

Funds dedicated to sukuk are a rare breed, with only 20 currently marketed in the Gulf. The average size of a sukuk fund in the region is just $43 million, but collectively they serve as a measure of secondary market activity and a barometer for the larger and more lucrative business of private investment mandates. As the market sees sukuk funds continue to perform well, in line with, and on occasion outperforming their conventional peers, a significant rise over the next five years in segregated account mandates is expected to take place. The largest six sukuk funds oriented to Gulf investors hold almost half of all the assets of such funds.

The insurance regulator of the United Arab Emirates has said that the number of takaful insurers in the region has increased to 10. The combined premium volume totaled about 2.8 billion U.A.E. dirhams ($762.3 million). The regulator said that it will hold meetings to discuss strategies for the development of Islamic insurance industry in the U.A.E. market.

Jeddah-based Islamic investment firm Sedco Capital has launched the first fund managed by its own in-house team, looking to bulk up its asset management capabilities. The Gulf equities fund, domiciled in Luxembourg, has an intial $30 million in assets and is Sedco's 14th fund overall. It is part of Sedco's strategy to source two-thirds of its assets under management from outside Saudi Arabia in four to five years. Previously, Sedco relied on external advisors for its funds. Sedco Capital said it had also signed the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), becoming the first Gulf-based Islamic asset manager to do so.

A study by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry , has revealed that Gulf entities have provided at least US$30bn of funding, at current prices, to African infrastructure over the past decade. This amounts to between 7% and 10% of total inflows, of which approximately US$15bn in loans and grants from Gulf development agencies and approximately US$15bn in direct investments. The study also revealed that Gulf funding for African infrastructure has focused on North Africa. To date, there has been relatively little Gulf investment in the continent's fast-growing economies of Angola, Ethiopia and Nigeria which have attracted funding from other parts of the world.

The $1.6 billion restructuring of Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank B.S.C. has a significance that extends far beyond simply returning value to its creditors. Arcapita was established in 1996 as the world's first Islamic investment bank. This means it had to comply with principles set out by Islamic law. The Chapter 11 restructuring of Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank, led by Gibson Dunn, saw U.S. bankruptcy courts faced for the first time with the world of Shariah law.

Baraka Khan, a 23-year-old Cambridge University student, has launched a project to build Europe’s first ecologically friendly mosque in the British city of Cambridge. The Cambridge Mosque, which will hold 1,000 worshipers, will be almost entirely reliant on green energy, with an almost-zero carbon footprint. The mosque building will be naturally lit all year round using large skylights integrated into the building’s design, and it will boast a green roof as well as an air-source heat pump for regulating temperature. The man who will design the building is award-winning architect Marks Barfield, who is also responsible for the iconic London Eye. He says he is aiming to merge traditional Islamic architectural motifs with those of the European Gothic style in order to bring the two cultures together.

Jaiz Bank Plc has increased its branch network to fourteen with the opening of the Kano Kabuga branch within Bayero University. A statement from the Head, Corporate Communications of Jaiz Bank, Idris Salihu said more branches would come on board before the end of the year. Salihu also stated that the bank has raised its capital base from the initial N5 billion it started with in 2012 to over N11 billion and is currently working on increasing it by way of right issue. The Bank commenced operations with three branches in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano states in January, 2012 and soon added branches in Gombe, Maiduguri, Katsina and Gusau (Zamfara state), Bauchi. It has three branches in Abuja and four in Kano with the addition of Kabuga branch.

For Islamic banking in Africa, the potential pool of customers is vast while the significant liquidity available within Islamic finance presents an ideal source of funding for Africa's huge infrastructure needs. Despite this evident potential, however, standalone Islamic banks are still comparatively rare across the continent. This is a consequence of the logistical difficulties and high-risk involved in setting up a new bank in Africa, together with the strict regulations involved in offering a Shari'ah-compliant solution, which have presented a double barrier to start-up Islamic banks in the continent. Offering an Islamic solution within an existing bank is a lower-risk way to access Africa's market potential.

In The Prince of Evolution Dugatkin tells the story of the Russian prince, evolutionary theorist, and political radical Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin whose Darwinian theory of mutual aid was the first to argue that cooperation was an integral part of natural selection. Dugatkin’s book is a précis on Kropotkin’s life and work, an overview that highlights the common theme of mutual aid in both his scientific and political ideas. The discoveries that Kropotkin made of glacial formations during the Quaternary Period in Russia were received with international acclaim and earned him invitations to join the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as a Cambridge University endowed chair in geology.

With the growing size of private wealth in the Gulf, maximizing the returns on this wealth is today's most pressing need and challenge. This has triggered fierce competition among wealth management firms. Private wealth management services delivered to high-net-worth investors include advice on the use of various estate planning vehicles, business-succession or stock-option planning, and occasional use of hedging derivatives for large blocks of stock. The recent report issued by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled "Global Wealth 2014: Riding a Wave of Growth" said private wealth in the region will reach $7.2 trillion by the end of 2018, approximately a 3.6 per cent share of total global wealth.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) has announced that the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh will officially commence his duties as of October 1st 2014 after having obtained the required regulatory approvals. Mazin Al-Nahedh has over 21 years of diversified banking experience and is a graduate of Business Administration (Finance) from the University of California USA. Before holding his position at KFH, Al-Nahedh served as Group General Manager - Treasury, General Manager - Corporate Banking Group, and Retail Banking General Manager at the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK). The appointment is in line with KFH's Board of Directors' directives and strategies towards improving business models, while paving the way for a younger generation of Kuwaiti professionals to hold leading positions at KFH.

The Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) has assigned international scale credit ratings to Gulf Finance House (GFH) at 'BB' (Double B) in the medium to long-term and at 'B' (Single B) in the short-term. On the national scale, ratings have been assessed at BB+/B (Double B Plus / Single B). The rating outlook for the Bank has been assessed as 'Positive'. IIRA has assessed the rating outlook for the institution as 'Positive' that hinges on developing a steady stream of core revenues and sustaining improvements to capital structure. The fiduciary score has been assessed in the range of '61-65'. Certain weaknesses of the bank's governance framework have been identified that require to be addressed.

Speculation publicly expressed by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an that Bank Asya doesn't have a sound structure and his obvious attempts to sink this bank constitute a crime under Turkish law, according to Selin Sayek Böke, the Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy chair in charge of the economy. Sharing her opinions about the current economic situation in Turkey, Böke stated that Turkey has further potential for growth, but its economy is currently in stagnation. She attributes this situation to structural problems. The current decline in the practice of democracy and the erosion of the rule of law will likely cause further trouble ahead, as investors are already unwilling to make big investments in a country with an increasingly authoritarian government and leaders.

As the government and consumers adapt to troubled financial conditions, there is growing support for financial products and institutions in Tunisia that correspond to principles of traditional Islamic law. Tunisia’s government has even discussed plans to issue a sukuk, to raise $700 million this year. Proponents of Islamic finance say the industry is still underdeveloped in North Africa. There is significant potential for growth in the region, however, particularly in Tunisia. In June, Thomson Reuters released a report on the Islamic finance industry in the country called ”Cautiously Optimistic Tunisia.” The reports findings highlight the prospects as well as the challenges of Islamic finance in Tunisia.

Almaty-based Al Hilal Islamic Bank may expand into neighbouring markets as legislation in the Central Asian countries changes. Islamic finance is gaining popularity in the region, but Al Hilal is currently the only sharia-compliant lender in Kazakhstan. The Abu Dhabi government wholly owns Al Hilal's parent company and according to its chief executive, Prasad Abraham, the bank is considering increasing its geographical presence as part of its 2015 business plan.