IslamicFinance.de

Over the past 15 years the British Museum has played a valuable educative role in Middle Eastern culture. It has shown us the legendary Babylon, introduced us to Persia’s great potentate, Shah Abbas, opened up the imperial court of Ashurbanipal, travelled to Afghanistan, the crossroads of ancient culture, and acted as tour guide on the Hajj. A splendid new suite of permanent galleries has also been opened to show off a world-class collection of Islamic treasures and explore their wider significance.

The federal government of Pakistan has decided to initiate a comprehensive plan for the promotion of Islamic banking in the country. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance chaired by Asad Umar announced that the State Bank of Pakistan was in the process of formulating a seven-year plan and a comprehensive framework in this regard will be introduced within two months. The SBP officials gave a briefing to the committee about the Eradication of Riba Act, 2019. The chairman advised the standing committee on finance to expedite the work on the bill and constituted a sub-committee, headed by MNA Raza Nasrullah.

Turkey is host to an estimated 4 million refugees, more than are living in any other country. This paper assesses “the feasibility of microfinance as an appropriate strategy for the financial inclusion of refugees in Turkey.” The authors identify some of the risks of lending to refugee populations and steps that can be taken to mitigate them. Borrowed funds may be used for unapproved purposes such as to repay other debts. This may be mitigated by visiting the borrower’s place of work to assess how the credit is to be used. Excluding local residents from lending programs can create resentment. This may be mitigated by issuing loans to groups whose members span both the local and refugee populations. Refugees may move away, making recovery of loan repayments more challenging. This can be mitigated by assessing a loan applicant’s level of integration into the local community.

Islamic finance has grown significantly over the past few years into an estimated US$2.4 trillion industry. While the use of Shariah compliant financing for the acquisition of aircraft is not a new development, aircraft leasing firms and operators are increasingly looking at Islamic finance as a source of funding for the acquisition of aircraft , whether that be via Islamic banks or through the issuance of Shariah compliant bonds (Sukuk) to raise funds via the debt capital markets.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines recently signed a law mandating Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the nation’s central bank, to provide for the regulation and supervision of Islamic banks. An Interagency Working Group on Islamic Banking and Finance will work to develop a regulatory framework, which is intended to expand the number of banks in the country that operate in accordance with Shariah principles.

Kuwait: Group Chief Executive Officer at Kuwait Finance House(KFH), Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh said that the banking and financial industry is undergoing a process of digital transformation where many processes – often transactional – are being fully automated.

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has expanded the number Fintech-related activities that will be awarded licenses and the agency plans to extend support to an increasing number of financial services firms through the QFC platform, according to a release.

The Islamic banking and finance sector in Pakistan continues to be on an upward trajectory, with assets, deposits and the number of branches of Islamic banks all showing solid growth. According to the latest Islamic Banking Bulletin issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on September 13, assets of Pakistan’s Islamic banking industry stood at Rs2,992bn ($19.8bn) by June-end, 2019, a growth of 20.6% as compared to June-end, 2018.

Many Muslims’ reliance on community offers opportunities including halal robo-advice.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has announce the launch of the first comprehensive African Governance Report. Based on IIAG data, the report will focus on: Governance and Africa’s implementation of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It will highlight the importance of using data to analyse the growing governance challenges and opportunities that must be addressed to drive sustainable development in Africa.

The U.N. General Assembly is underway this week, and the global development community has descended upon New York en masse. Impact bonds are just one example of outcome-based financing, where private investors provide upfront capital, repaid conditional on the achievement of pre-determined metrics. Although evidence is sparse on the relative merits of this mechanism, millions of dollars are being invested in their design and implementation.

Group Chief Executive Officer at Kuwait Finance House(KFH), Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh, emphasized that KFH-Turkey enjoys robust financial position and very strong liquidity ratios as per the regulatory authority’s requirements in Turkey and Kuwait, not to mention as per the international standard Basel III.

Alwaleed Philanthropies has made a new $5 million investment, in their partnership with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a proposed commitment to further prevent the spread of disease in low-income urban areas in which additional funds are proposed to be made between 2020 and 2024.

Policymakers around the world have upped the pressure on libra, the digital currency being introduced by Facebook, amid concerns it could heavily disrupt the global financial system. It appears to be a running theme from a number of regulators and lawmakers, who worry libra would compete with government currencies. That’s because Facebook is such an influential platform, with more than 2.4 billion monthly active users as of July 2019.

The Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair Refugee Education Fund announced its grantees for their second round of funding, following the end of the inaugural round in 2018. The fund aims to support 10,000 students through secondary level and vocational education. First two of funding dispersed AED74 million (approximately £16 million) supporting the education of over 17,000 youth in Jordan, Lebanon, and UAE.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, Africa’s Islamic banks will continue to perform well and African sukuk issuance will keep expanding steadily. In October and December last year, the governments of Morocco and Nigeria issued $105 million and $327 million of sukuk. In Morocco it was an inaugural issuance and the transaction was 3.6 times oversubscribed. According to the rating agency, structural constraints that have prevented sukuk markets from developing still remain. These constraints include the legislative complexity and time associated with sukuk issuance, especially for new issuers, and the need to identify physical collateral to support the sukuk structure. Moody’s expects robust issuance in African sukuks over the next 18 months. Egypt, Algeria and Sudan have recently expressed interest in issuing sukuk.

Money managers poured into the Gulf region till Saturday’s unprecedented attack on Saudi Arabia’s key oil facilities. That drove record gains for bonds in August as they sought refuge in securities boasting an average credit score of A+ amid global trade tensions. According to a Bloomberg Barclays index, Saudi Arabian bonds handed investors the biggest loss, about triple that of Qatari securities. The strikes in Saudi Arabia could escalate into a showdown, with the kingdom and U.S. on one side, and Iran and proxy groups from Yemen to Lebanon, on the other. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the assault and warned that oil installations in the Arab nation remain a target.

The asset management industry in the Arabian Gulf is set to grow, as regional governments overhaul their hydrocarbon-dependent economies and ease regulations. According to Moody’s Investors Service, investment managers in the six-member economic bloc of the GCC had $260 billion (Dh954bn) of assets under management at the end of last year. The Gulf states are trying to overhaul their economies and cut their dependence on oil. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are pursuing their own economic reforms to develop alternative lines of revenue. Both countries have introduced laws to broaden their appeal to foreign investors. Moody’s expects global market leaders to expand their presence in the Saudi Arabia due to a relaxation of foreign ownership limits coupled with more transparent regulations.

The boards of Kuwait Finance House and Ahli United Bank agreed on a share swap ratio. AUB said its board approved a final exchange ratio between the two lenders of one KFH share for every 2.325581 AUB shares. A final decision on the deal is subject to approval from shareholders of both banks, central banks and other authorities in Kuwait and Bahrain. The approved ratio is the same as the one announced in January, when the lenders hired HSBC and Credit Suisse as advisers to carry out financial and legal due diligence of each other’s accounts. According to equity analysts Mohamad Al Hajj and Elena Sanchez-Cabezudo, this merger would increase KFH’s expected weight within MSCI Emerging Market Index by 8 basis points and increase expected flows in May 2020 by $370 million. KFH has tried to acquire AUB in the past, but talks stalled over a difference in valuation.

The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has amended governance regulations for Kuwaiti banks, allowing them to add independent members to their boards of directors and subcommittees. The new regulations define independent board members and the conditions of such independence. Dr Mohammed Yousef Al-Hashel, the Governor of CBK, said that independent members to banks’ board of directors will enhance board members’ independence as a basic principle of sound governance practises. The amendments also allow a minimum of two independent members from 30 June 2020, then four from 30 June 2022 to avoid unexpected demand for independent members and allow gradual implementation of the decision.