IslamicFinance.de

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has drafted the Issuance of Sukuk Regulations which are now being published for public comment. The regulations focus on providing more comfort to the Sukuk investors and shall facilitate the issuance of Islamic bonds.

See more under: http://www.brecorder.com/money-a-banking/198/1244872/

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) shall cooperate in the promoting of Islamic finance in common developing member countries. The cooperation should be based on joint technical assistance and/or policy-based work in member countries.

See more under: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/bu...

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) plans to set up first Islamic company in Kazakhstan in 2013. The object of business shall be: renewable energy and agricultural projects. The reason for that is the lack of agricultural resources in Gulf countries. On the contrary, countries in Central Asia and Africa have the resources but not the capital, which is why IDB considers opportunities for Islamic banking in Kazakhstan, which has a resource-driven economy that is the largest in Central Asia.

See more under: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/01/islamic-finance-kazakhstan-idU...

The industry's first Islamic Euro Nostro Account has recently been launched by Standard Chartered Bank. It will allow Islamic banks across the world to earn profits on their account balances, respecting the general rules of Murabaha. Bank Alfalah Limited from Pakistan was the first bank which has signed an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank.

See more under: http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/10/02/standard-chartered-bank-launches-...

IDB's president, Mohamed Ali, have urged for global solidarity in fight against polio. The bank is working on new financial package for the government of Pakistan that should help to finance polio eradicatoin activities in the country. IDB intends to provide similar grant to Afganistan that is same as Pakistan highly affected by this horrible disease.

See more under: http://www.arabnews.com/idb-joins-call-polio-eradication

In a recent announcement UBL Fund Managersstated that it will launch its new Shariah-compliant investment scheme. The scheme known under the name UBL Islamic Cash Fund is described as an Islamic Money Market Scheme with clients who have cash lying idle in a current account as a target group. Investing in UBL Islamic Cash Fund will enable customers to earn a competitive return which will be calculated and announced on a daily basis.

More on: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\09\19\story_19-9-2012_pg10_3

Islamic Development Bank intends to finance projects worth 1 billion USD in Kasakhstan, thus implementing the country strategy. At the beginning of October a new country strategy of the bank in Kazakhstan will be signed. According to plan, in the following 2 years IDB will provide financial means for a number of projects.

More on: http://caspionet.kz/eng/business/In_20122014_IDB_will_finance_Kazakhstan...

The Deputy Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) - Kazi Abdul Muktadir - announced that the bank is working on a new five-year (2013-17) strategic plan for Islamic banking industry. This plan shall define an overall direction for the Islamic banking industry. According to Mr. Muktadir, an increase in Islamic finance's share in the banking system is very likely and can reach up to 15% in the five years to follow.

Bank of Khyber (BoK), the new Raast Islamic Banking Branch at Mingora was formally inaugurated by Engr Humayun Khan on Friday. At the ceremony, Engr Humayun Khan expressed his appreciation of the vital role of BoK in province's socio-economic uplifts activities. Furthermore, he said that the government extended its full support to BoK. He also pointed out the bank's importance for the implementation of the self-employments schemes of the provincial government in order to reduce the unemployment among youths.

A team from Bankable Frontier Associates started a project to study the effect of interoperability in retail payments on the outcome of financial inclusion in Pakistan. The target they set was 100 million Pakistanis to be financially included electronically by 2020. Now the final report is ready and available for the public. Specific ideas for the Pakistani market are provided in the report. These are intended to be implemented in workshops with Pakistan industry. Moreover, the report stresses on the importance of interoperability and the reasons for that as wel as on how people should think about it from a policy and market development perspective and how it should be measured.

The common belief goes that Islamic finance or banking is for Muslims only. However, this is not true. Islamic finance and banking attempts to build a financial system based on ethics and fairness, havin thus an effect on the socio-economic conditions of the market it is implemented in. Therefore, people of any belief can make use of it. The problem is the lacking awareness about Islamic finance in Pakistan as well as worldwide. Optimized solutions for proper display of Islamic products and for bridging the communication gap between the Shariah councils issuing the fatwas pursuant to Islamic Finance, and the managers drafting the advertisements are sought.

The court in Sindh provice registered a petition of five Pakistan's takaful operators as a sign of protest againts the new rules for insurance sector that was launced last month. Accordint to them, conventional insurance firms would become right to offer takaful services. It would make Pakistan the second Islamic country after Indonesia where takaful windows are officially allowed. The court has been adjourned to an unknown date.

New takaful rules have been introduced by Pakistan's regulator. They were designed to boost competition and to lift the sector's market share by allowing the entry of conventional players. Consequently, Pakistan became the second country after Indonesia to officially allow takaful windows. Since the introduction of the first rules in 2005, Takaful has operated without conventional competitors in Pakistan. However, those rules allowed windows after a five-year period. As the securities commission said last month, conventional insurance firms could serve a vaster share of the takaful market.

Standard Chartered arranges a one-year $35 million Islamic structured trade finance facility for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). This transaction has been arranged and structured solely by the bank. The facility is structured as an Islamic offshore transaction. It uses innovative services Ijara concept-based on purchase and distribution of airline seats.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan issued the first sukuk in the former Soviet Union worth $75 million. It is expexted that this sukuk will soon be followed by a number of new issues in the country. The issued bond will generates an annual payment of 5.5 per cent and is a part of the bank's Islamic note programme worth 1.5 billion ringgit. THe programme is subjected to the sharia principle of murabaha.

For the first time, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan has launched an Islamic bond. This issue may result in setting a benchmark for Kazakh sukuk and lay the path for future placement of corporate Islamic bonds. The paper is worth MYR240m ($76.6m) and has benn placed for five years with a yield of 5.5% a year. 38% of the bond are placed in Kazakhstan while the remaining 62% belong to Malaysian investors.

Aproximatly 100 investment projects worth 300 billion roubles have been introduced at the 4th International Summit in Kazan.
The organizers of the forum were the government of Tatarstan, the Islamic Business & Finance Development Foundation (IBFD) with the support of the Federation Council of Russia.
The summit is attended by thousands of guests from over 30 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation including: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey, the UAE, Oman, Pakistan.

The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) are pleased to announce the launch of the ISDA/IIFM Mubadalatul Arbaah (Profit Rate Swap) product standard to be used for Islamic hedging purposes.

The Mubadalatul Arbaah (MA) standard follows on from the “ISDA/IIFM Tahawwut (Hedging) Master Agreement” and provides the industry with a framework for Islamic risk mitigation. The launch of the Tahawwut Master Agreement as the template for Shari’ah-compliant risk management was officially announced at a press conference hosted by Central Bank of Bahrain in March 2010.

Dear Reader,

IslamicFinance.de is privately funded for many years. Now, for the first time, you have the possibility to make a contribution, from one Dollar upwards!

The technical details, and the money transfer via paypal is organised by Kapipal a new online fundraising tool:

http://www.kapipal.com/islamicfinance

On the blog I gave some more thoughts about Islamic finance media for those interested: http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/3454

Please also note: The fundraising action has a deadline, so act today, not tomorrow and tell your friends about it!

All donors who will leave a message will be listed in the article, which follows after closure of the fundraising period.

I am happy to meet you in person either on 19th March in Milano (http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/3396) or on 10th May in Frankfurt (http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=BAFINII) at the respective Islamic finance conference.

Wa at Taufiq min Allah, all the best,

Michael Saleh Gassner

Dear Readers,

Islamic finance media are a tricky service. This is true for various reasons: The Internet eats up the revenues, because everything ought to be free. Islamic banks are still a niche phenomena, and international banks like UBS or Deutsche are almost as large as the entire global Islamic finance industry. Consequently the marketing budgets are much lower, too.

Last not least, who should advertise? The banks among themselves or to the clients? Advertising from bank to bank, does usually not make much sense, but real client oriented formats are hard to find, too. May be this is a niche. Others, who could finance Islamic finance media are basically the service providers to the banks, but due to the limited number of Islamic financial insitutions, direct marketing, e.g. face to face meetings will be preferred.

This in short is the background why Islamic finance media are not so well established in terms of journalism and research, but mostly reflecting the press release as criticised by the makers of the Islamic Globe. See: http://www.theislamicglobe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article...