IslamicFinance.de

More than 100 West Yorkshire Muslims attended an event in Bradford which focused on Islamic finance. The networking dinner was organised by the Professional Muslim Institute and sponsored by the Islamic Bank of Britain plc and Ummah Financial, two of West Yorkshire’s leading Islamic finance providers. Guest speaker was Imam Qari Asim, senior Imam at Leeds Makkah Mosque.

London-based Gatehouse Bank plc (Gatehouse) has completed the acquisition of a 163,000 sq ft, state of the art office building in Salt Lake City, Utah. The deal is expected to return a stable and healthy yield over the investment period. The property is 100% leased to theGeneral Services Administration (GSA) for a fixed term of 20 years. The Class-A office building has been built specifically to meet the critical security requirements of the tenant. Gatehouse Bank was assisted by Arch Street Capital Advisors and sister company GSH in this transaction.

The real-estate arm of Qinvest, the Qatari investment bank will focus on the United States and its home market and avoid Europe this year. This is because competition makes the European market tougher. With targeted returns of up to 6 percent and over, the bank's plan is to focus on assets in U.S. retail - such as single-tenant units on New York City's Fifth Avenue - and in the less liquid and less crowded Qatari market. Qinvest is in the process of taking over Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes , though regulators have yet to approve the deal.

Al Baraka Turk, a unit of Bahraini lender Al Baraka, said on Wednesday it had started work on establishing a joint private pension company with Kuveyt Turk. The bank made the statement to Istanbul Stock Exchange. Turkish lender Kuveyt Turk is 62 percent owned by Kuwait Finance House.

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) announced on February 13 that the Islamic financial services segment grew 12.6% in 2012. Total assets reached TL1.3bn ($0.72bn), driven largely by growth in the second half of the year, according to Mükim Öztekin, president of the BDDK. Expansion was due to a change in the perceived level of risk in the country, he added, together with an acceleration of capital inflow, decreasing interest rates and the overall economic growth trend. According to BDDK, sector profits hit TL23.6bn ($13.10bn) in 2012, up 19.2% on the TL3.8bn ($2.11bn) posted the previous year. Equity capital, meanwhile, increased by 26% to reach TL182bn ($101.13bn). While conventional banking assets and profits are growing at a steady pace, the Islamic finance segment has been earmarked as the industry’s next big growth story.

The UK government launched on Monday the first Islamic finance task-force to help to cement London's status as the western hub for Islamic finance. It will support development of the UK's Islamic finance sector, increasing inward investment and strengthening the economy. The Task Force will include major industry figures to ensure that the UK's offer is promoted at home and abroad by both the public and private sector. The Islamic finance Task Force will be co-chaired by Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Greg Clark and Baroness Warsi, Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Turkish Islamic lender Bank Asya said on Monday it had mandated banks for a subordinated sukuk issue worth up to $300 million with a ten-year maturity. The lender made the statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Strong investor demand and a need to improve capital adequacy ratios are causing Turkey's Islamic banks to consider issuing subordinated sukuk.

The European Central Bank and the Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) are conducting a joint study on policies affecting Islamic finance in Europe. European scholars and regulators are going to examine a broad set of policy and regulatory issues in relation to Islamic finance in Europe. An expected release date was not given. The study will be complemented on April 9 by the IFSB's annual forum, which will be hosted by the Bank of Italy in Rome.

Why an Islamic Finance training programme?

The Islamic banking and finance (IBF) sector has experienced substantial and unprecedented growth in recent years: growing at a rate of 10-15% per year. Today, more than 500 IBF institutions are operating worldwide, which are claimed to manage assets worth no less than $1.2 trillion, while the assets held in IBF institutions were only less than $10 billion in 1985. In Malaysia the IBF institutions are planned to capture the 25% of the market share, in terms of assets owned, by 2012, while it is expected that Islamic finance will be the mainstream finance in the Gulf region in the next decade.

Such immense growth has brought Islamic finance to the attention of the international banking and finance community, prompting the major banks to set up Islamic financial windows to take advantage of demand for Shari'ah compliant finance.

Falcon Private Bank is planning to launch a fund early next month that will invest in global sukuk.The fund will be offered to the bank’s clients and could grow to $500 million, according to Zafar Khan, Falcon’s Mena chief executive. There is alreade substantial demand from the bank's clients for global sukuk investments, he added. He also considers the yields of the past two years dislocated and the current yields more realistic to the underlying risk.

The former Chief Executive of Gatehouse Bank David Testa has successfully appealed in the first-tier tax tribunal against HM Revenue & Customs' "flawed" refusal to suspend a penalty imposed for a careless inaccuracy. HMRC rejected David Testa's offer of using a qualified tax practitioner to ensure he ironed out future self-assessment errors after he mistakenly failed to declare his severance payment after he left his post with the bank in 2009. The tribunal upheld Testa's view, noting HMRC's policy "sits uneasily" regarding inaccuracies arising from one-off events. Judge Kevin Poole described HMRC's logic as "flawed" and added there is "a danger of taking too narrow a view of the legislation".

Safa Investment Services received this week its official certification for Shari'a compliance from Shariyah Review Bureau. It makes Safa Investment Services the first Islamic global asset management business in the world. Safa permits customers to benefit from global asset diversification of their managed accounts, but with a complete respect for the principles of Islamic law. This includes not only selecting securities that meet global regulatory standards, but also the process to manage accounts and the contracts under which they are managed.

London-based Gatehouse Bank is participating in the youth mentoring initiative 'Mosaic' that seeks to inspire young people from deprived communities to realise their talents and potential. The seminar saw business leaders, including the CEO of Gatehouse Bank, Richard Thomas, sharing important insights and experiences on activities undertaken in 2012. According to a press release from Gatehouse Bank, Mosaic addresses the role that businesses can play in responding to social and environmental problems. Therefore, it directly reflects the business ethos of a socially responsible Shari’ah banking model.

Alderman Roger Gifford, the Lord Mayor of The City Of London, said that London is becoming increasingly important in the Islamic finance world. A lot of infrastructure exists to service Islamic finance, however it is nothing more than a niche product in London which represents less than 1 per cent of the entire market. Gifford is therefore promoting further cooperation between Dubai and the wider UAE market with London. This can help Dubai to become a global capital of the Islamic economy, according to the Lord Mayor.

Finanzkrise, Bankenkrise, Eurokrise – und kein Ende. In den drei monotheistischen Religionen gibt es ziemlich präzise Vorstellungen über den Umgang mit Geld und Schulden. Bieten sie uns Lösungsansätze für die heutigen Probleme?

Dienstag, 5. März 2013, 20 Uhr, IGB Leimenstr. 24, 4051 Basel

Michael Gassner: Geld und Ethik im Islam

„Jüdische“ oder „christliche“ Banken gibt es nicht, wohl aber islamische, deren Geschäftstätigkeit sich nach dem islamischen Religionsgesetz, der Schari‘a, richtet. Der zweite Vortrag in der Reihe „Geld & Ethik“ beschäftigt sich mit den Regeln des Geldwesens im Islam und deren Anwendung im modernen islamischen Bankwesen. Michael Gassner ist muslimischer Bankfachmann und entwickelt islamische Finanzprodukte für eine Schweizer Privatbank.

The UK’s student accommodation market was recently calculated by realtor CBRE as having generated £2.7 billion in transactions in 2012. With the exception of the largest operator none of the top five operators are listed or otherwise in obviously British public ownership. The lack of liquidity is a definite drawback for investment in student accommodation. There’s growing American money in the UK’s student accommodation investment market, and Middle Eastern, Shari’ah-compliant investment – such as the AUB UK Student Accommodation Fund, which hails out of the Ahli United Bank of Bahrain. A REIT, a real estate investment trust, could serve as a vehicle for investment in this part of the UK’s real estate sector in order to instill a high level of investor confidence, which in turn aids liquidity.

The Islamic Finance Society is pleased to announce our first event. Starting with a presentation on careers opportunities in Islamic Finance, followed by a presentation and discussion on industry related topics in Islamic Finance: Asset Management, Real Estate, Investment Banking.

Tuesday 19 February 2013, 18:30-20:00
Cass Business School, 106 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TZ
Room: LG001
Registration: 18:15-

Bahraini GFH Capital is considering selling a majority stake of Championship club Leeds United which it has owned since December 21. GFH bought Leeds from Ken Bates for £17million plus payments based on reaching the Premier League within four years. A multi-national consortium led by former Hull City executive Adam Pearson has made proposals to buy either 51 per cent or all of GFH's shareholding, which values Leeds at around £25m. According to a GFH statement, they received an offer for a majority stake that has not been accepted, although they have been seeking strategic investors.

Strong investor demand and a need to improve capital adequacy ratios are causing Turkey's Islamic banks to consider issuing subordinated sukuk. Ibrahim Oguducu, head of the financial institutions business at Bank Asya, said longer-tenor subordinated sukuk would help balance mismatches between the maturities of banks' liabilities and assets, while diversifying their funding sources. Subordinated issues might not be expensive for Turkey's Islamic banks that have issued only two sukuk so far.

The European Islamic Investment Bank PLC (EIIB.LN) said Tuesday it has sold a financing facility provided to Arcapita for $8.1 million in cash to Barclays Bank. The facility, dating from 2007, formed part of a syndicated loan facility which was due for repayment in March 2012. However, Arcapita defaulted on its payment obligations and in early 2012 announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. The sale will result in a total charge of $6.9 million in the results to December 2012.