IslamicFinance.de

The first UK-Bahrain Islamic Finance Summit was held in London and highlighted the importance of co-operation in the area of educational and training development in Islamic finance. The BIBF presented a paper on that topic, saying that a million professional Islamic finance jobs are expected to be created worldwide by 2020. The paper highlighted several trends and facts within the Islamic financial sector. It also highlighted that this has produced a paradigm shift from an educational standpoint in Organisation of Islamic Co-operation countries and will generate multiple specialised training opportunities for human capital development within the sector. The BIBF team also participated in many panel discussions during the event, focusing on investment, education, and regulation.

Which Islamic finance personalities are the most influential and whom you would nominate to the Top Muslim 500 publication?

The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre is preparing the 2014/15 edition of the Muslim 500 and is now opening nominations from the public. Nominations will be evaluated on the basis of the influence that particular Muslims have had within the Muslim community and the manner in which their influence has benefited the Muslim community, both within the Islamic world and in terms of representing Islam to non-Muslims.

Nominations will close on June 14, 2014.

Please go to the website and submit your nominations *directly*.

In early March, the Saudi Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) announced a decree giving all companies five years to meet new air, water and noise pollution standards. All projects must fit into Saudi's plan for international development, and must meet international benchmarks standards as part of the PME's environmental plan to protect Saudi's health and natural resources. The new regulations are wide-reaching, addressing soil and land preservation, noise pollution from operating machinery, hazardous and radioactive waste that enters Saudi Arabia's coastal waters and other harmful pollutants. Companies refusing to comply with Saudi Arabia's new standards within five years will see their projects shut down and suspended for three months.

The book Startup Rising, from the author Christopher Shroeder, is perhaps the first major portrait of the startup scene in a region that is often deeply misunderstood. It describes the desire of young people in the GCC and MENA regions to have social impact through their business ventures. It also tells the story of how businesspeople have used technology to work around cultural barriers and institutional challenges. Most importantly, the book attempts to map out the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the region. Shroeder sees three groups of people shaping the MENA entrepreneurship ecosystem: Investors, Conveners and Recognizers. They are all engaged in their societies, because they feel a sense of national pride and a desire to level the playing field for all businesses to compete.

The International Finance Corporation, the private-investment arm of the US-based World Bank Group, has announced that the Gulf African Bank (GAB) in Kenya has become a member of its Africa Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Finance Program. Through this program, GAB will receive advisory services from IFC in the areas of accessibility for customers, speed of service, adding new products and customer relationships. In 2013, IFC paid USD 5 million for a stake of undisclosed size in GAB. As of December 2013, GAB had total assets of KES 16 billion (USD 184 million). IFC has 182 member countries and reported total assets of USD 77.5 billion.

Kingdom Tower, the Saudi skyscraper set to be the world’s tallest building, will probably have construction funding in place by the end of the first half. The developer Jeddah Economic Co. is in talks to bring in Riyadh-based Alinma Bank as an adviser and lender. BNP Paribas (BNP) SA is currently advising the company, but the size of loan being sought hasn't been disclosed. The builder has been looking for financing since at least April 2012. Kingdom Holding Co. and partners, including tower builder Saudi Binladen Group, are trying to arrange funding after investing 8.7 billion riyals ($2.3 billion) in the project. They are seeking a bank loan with a maturity of five to seven years.

In principle, Islamic banks act as financial brokers between the investors (depositors) and companies or individuals seeking finance solutions that are sharia compliant; sharing the profit/loss. One of the most important principles of Islamic banking is to play an active role in achieving social development. Islamic banks should be able to provide financing solutions for the different investment and commercial projects in a way different from the traditional commercial banks. However, Islamic banking institutions in the world in general and GCC in particular face many challenges on the foremost of which is the inability to attract leaders and manpower specialised in Islamic banking. They are therefore required to provide high quality and intensive training for their staff.

The demand of Islamic microfinance is rapidly increasing in order to serve poverty alleviation and social development. Its active client size has exceeded two million now from which more than 700,000 belong to Sudan and more than 400,000 clients of Islamic Microfinance Institutions are from Pakistan. Yemen, Indonesia, and Bangladesh also have a good number of clientage and Islamic microfinance has satisfactory demand in Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Tunisia. However, there are lots of challenges faced by Islamic microfinance i.e. squeezed volume of organisations, lack of technical expertise and quality HR, lack of standardisation of the products, and especially the lack of funds for Islamic microfinance institutions.

Course overview:

- Enable participants to apply the principles of Islamic finance
- ExamiEnable participants to apply the principles of Islamic finance
- Examine in detail the different Islamic retail banking products offered by Islamic banks in
various jurisdictions including depository and wealth management solutions.
- Analyze different product structures, and other business related issues - regulatory, legal,
marketing and implementation challenges in the US market.
- Compare and contrast the various Islamic products with their conventional financial
equivalents
- At the end of the course, delegates will have a comprehensive understanding of the different
tools applied by Islamic banks to finance retail consumer needs, and will be able to structure
different solutions that are suitable for the US market.
- The course will use discussions, team exercises, and case studies to ensure delegates learn by
doing.ne in detail the different Islamic retail banking products offered by Islamic banks in
various jurisdictions including depository and wealth management solutions.
- Analyze different product structures, and other business related issues - regulatory, legal,

Middle Eastern investment banking fees reached US$120.3 million during the first quarter of 2014, down 17% from the previous quarter and a 2% decline compared to the first quarter of 2013. Fees from completed M&A transactions totaled US$46.4 million, up 19% from the same period in 2013, and accounting for 39% of this year’s overall Middle Eastern fee pool. Equity capital markets underwriting fees totaled US$39.6 million, more than twice the amount registered during the first quarter of 2013 (US$17.4 million) and marking the best annual start for ECM fees in the Middle East since 2008. Fees from debt capital markets underwriting declined 47% year-on-year to US$17.4 million, while syndicated lending fees fell 49% to US$16.9 million.

There is an increasingly loud chatter brewing about halal food in non-Muslim countries and amongst a segment of Muslims, and, it seems, it’s not all positive. The differing reactions should be a basis for a multi-jurisdiction primary-based research on the rational for halal and kosher in non-Muslim countries, as this may provide a blueprint for positioning, placing and promoting, especially benefitting suppliers. Today, there is no global halal industry body like Bahrain-based AAOIFI or IIFM or Malaysia-based IFSB to provide guidelines. It is hoped that the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC) would, one day, roll off the tongue for halal as AAOFI, launched in 1991, is for Islamic finance concerning accounting and auditing.

Licensing and the implementation of sharia often cause investors to reconsider investing in Aceh. The Aceh provincial administration, through the Aceh Promotion and Investment Board (BIPA), has made strenuous efforts to convince investors to invest capital. BIPA has coordinated with various stakeholders, including city administrations and district level administrations, to help spur economic growth in Aceh. It also initiated a joint commitment to improve the image of Aceh and inputting data on impediments and issues faced by the business world to seek immediate solutions. However, uncertain regulations and licensing as well as an unfriendly attitude towards foreign investors are issues yet to be solved.

Pakistan's Minister for Finance Muhammad Ishaq Dar held a meeting with officials from Dubai Islamic Bank ( DIB ) in Dubai where they discussed prospects of another sukuk issuance and hiring an advisor for transparent sukuk transaction. Following the success of Euro Bond wherein Pakistan raised $2 billion from capital market recently, the minister said government intends to tap the sukuk market to increase its foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan plans to sell $1 billion dollar-denominated sukuk which will be marketed at the end of the third or in the fourth quarter of 2014. Dar said Pakistan government would soon release an advertisement in international and local press to hire financial advisor for sukuk transaction through a transparent and competitive process.

The global primary sukuk market has begun 2Q2014 on a solid footing as the month of April has produced a new issuances volume of more than USD13.4bln, making it the best performing month in 2014 year-to-date (YTD). The month saw a welcoming return of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sukuk issuers who expanded their volume with issuances totalling more than USD4bln. Issuances by GCC based obligors helped shore up the share of corporate sukuks which accounted for USD2.4bln of the total issuance volume in April, registering a 65% increase compared to March. However proportionately, the market continued to be heavily driven by the sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers who collectively accounted for approximately 82% of the issuance volume in April

Eureeca, a crowd investing platform offering a global solution for growth businesses to raise finance, announced that Sameer Al Ansari has joined the company as a Board Director. Al Ansari is the founder of PE Plus, and the former chairman of Dubai International Capital, and CEO of Shuaa Capital. Al Ansari, who also sits on the boards of Dubai International Financial Centre Authority; Hawkamah Institute of Corporate Governance; and Cedrus Bank, is the company’s sixth board member.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Schapiro have taken up leadership positions with the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB). Bloomberg has been named as board chair and Schapiro as vice-chair of the organization. SASB was launched publicly less than two years ago. The San Francisco-based nonprofit provides an industry-specific reporting framework for crucial sustainability issues that integrates with the companies’ quarterly 10-K financial disclosures, which are required by the SEC. SASB is working on reporting guidelines for 88 industries across 10 sectors.

As the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEFA) ended on Friday, Mrs. Elzie Kanza, the Director and Head of Africa WEF, said about 50,000 social media items mentioned the Forum. The coverage had a total reach of over 2.1 billion - about 30 per cent of the world's population. Kanza said that the Chinese government had planned to invest US$42 billion in Africa, US$10 billion in investment financing, US$30 billion in extending credit lines and US$2 billion into a China-Africa investment fund. In the business sector, she said that the Dangote group is investing US$16 billion in Nigeria over the next four years and it is expected to create 180,000 jobs. Kanza added that another company will be investing US$1 billion across Africa in the next 10 years while 20,00 jobs will be created through the Digital Africa initiative.

Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has joined NASDAQ Dubai’s Islamic financing Murabaha platform, which offers bank customers solutions for processing Sharia’a-compliant financing transactions. SIB is the first bank to join the facility since the official launch of the NASDAQ Dubai Murabaha Platform last month. Through the NASDAQ Dubai Murabaha Platform, individual and institutional clients of SIB will be able to complete financing transactions within minutes. The platform is an alternative to many traditional Islamic financing solutions, which can carry a risk of losses through price movements, spreads and poor liquidity as well as delays.

The UAE's Debt Settlement Fund was set up to rescue Emiratis struggling to meet payments on loans and credit cards. It was launched with an initial budget of Dh10 billion. Heavily indebted Emiratis who receive help by the fund are not allowed to borrow from any banks and their name is centralised in all banks. All banks are required to cooperate, and uncooperative institutions will face penalties. Under the auspices of the agreement, the bank writes off half the outstanding amount of the debt, which must be in dispute. However, in turn, the bank gets closure on a debt that is stuck in litigation. However, only Emiratis who have been taken to court by a bank on account of default as of the date of the launch of the initiative in 2011, qualify for the programme.

Iran's Bank Mellat filed an application for a judicial review against the UK Government in the Administrative Court on 16 April 2014. In its final ruling last June, the UK Supreme Court found that by imposing domestic sanctions against Bank Mellat, the UK Government acted both “unlawfully and irrationally”. Following the UK Supreme Court decision, Bank Mellat had asked the UK Government to withdraw its 2010 listing proposal to the EU Council. It was hoped that this may have been sufficient to convince the EU Council to give up on its own sanctions against the bank. However, the UK Government has refused to withdraw the proposal. The UK Government has also now applied for permission to intervene in support of the EU Council’s appeal against the first European Court decision.