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CGAP, Deutsche Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and Grameen-Jameel announced the Islamic Microfinance Challenge 2010: Innovating Sustainable, Scalable, and Market-Driven Models. The contest is a joint initiative to promote the innovative design of Shariah-compliant products for Islamic microfinance clients.

The organizers are seeking original Islamic microfinance business proposals which are profitable, sustainable, scalable, and Shariah-compliant. Finalists of this competition will be awarded with grant funds as well as need-based technical support to launch a pilot project of their proposed business idea.

It offers a unique opportunity to showcase innovative business ideas, gain industry-wide recognition, and benefit from the funds and technical expertise of leading institutions in the microfinance and Islamic finance sectors.

CEO of HSBC Amanah will deliver the keynote address at Euromoney's Islamic Finance Summit in London on 23rd February 2010 at The Landmark.

In his speech, Mukhtar Hussian is expected to highlight how to put the economic crisis and lessons learnt from recent sukuk defaults to good use. He will also reveal how the industry can drive competitiveness with conventional banking, while ensuring stable growth through 'best in class' risk management. Also on the agenda: Why high-profile sukuk defaults have generated a timely debate, enforceability and the lessons the industry must learn about reputational risk.

The financial manager of Bank Melli Iran (BMI) has refuted the rumors on declaring bankruptcy by the bank, saying BMI is the largest bank in Iran and across the Islamic world, considering its total assets of around $54 billion. A report released in September, 2009 by Asian Banker showed that the world's top 100 Islamic banks increased their assets by 66% last year to more than $580 billion, compared to $350 billion in 2007, while rivals were trying to deal with the global financial downturn. According to the survey, BMI was standing at the top of the world's top 100 Islamic banks list in terms of assets, while Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank came in second, Press TV reported.

As part of Taageer's efforts to spread its geographical presence, the company has made its first investments in Sudan along with one of the major founder promoters of Taageer (The Arab Investment Company). The most important aspect of the investment is that Taageer would be adding value to Sudan operations by providing Technical and Management consultancy during the first three years of operations. The Arab Leasing Company Limited, which falls under the supervision of the Central Bank of Sudan, is considered to be a leading institution in the field of finance leasing in Sudan. The company, registered in Sudan, specialises in finance leasing activity with its head office in Khartoum, with a paidup capital of US $30 million.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) announces that the monthly issue of the Sukuk Al-Salam Islamic securities has been oversubscribed. Subscriptions worth BD63m were received for the BD12m issue, which carries a maturity of 91 days. The expected return on the issue, which begins on 27 January 2010 and matures on 28 April 2010, is 1.05%.

Masraf al Rayan, Qatar's fourth largest bank by market value, reported a fourth quarter profit of $76.96 million, an increase of 30 percent over the same period in 2008, according to Reuters calculations.

Moody's Investors Service today downgraded the ratings for Aldar Properties PJSC (Aldar), the Trust Certificates (sukuk) issued by Sukuk Funding (No. 2) Limited and the guaranteed Notes issued by Atlantic Finance Limited, to Baa2 from A3. Ratings have been kept on review for further possible downgrade as part of the ongoing review of government support for Abu Dhabi and UAE corporates initiated by Moody's on December 9, 2009.

Medium-term growth prospects for the world's sukuk market are good, said Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in a report published today. In addition, we understand from unofficial market sources that about US$10 billion more could potentially enter the pipeline. If that comes to market, total sukuk issuance in 2010 could approach the current 2007 record of US$34.3 billion. The main uncertainty this year is market conditions.

King & Spalding, a leading international law firm, said it had advised Riyadh-based Jadwa Investment Company in the acquisition of a significant equity stake in Gulf Union Foods Company (GUFC), a top producer of juices and beverages in Saudi Arabia.

Thomson Reuters announced the launch of a risk management system specifically tailored for Islamic banking.

Kondor+ Suite for Islamic Banking is a real time trade and risk management solution, which will provide full front-to-back and cross-asset coverage for Islamic banks as well as Islamic windows in conventional banks.

Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has signed an agreement with Noor Takaful according to which the Bank will offer Noor Takaful Motor Takaful Insurance to all SIB customers through its network of 23 branches. This strategic partnership will enable SIB customers to access Noor Takaful's motor insurance plans for their currently owned or newly purchased sedans and 4x4s at preferential rates and with minimum documentation.

"Takafulhous" subsidiary of Mawarid Finance, the leading Islamic insurance company in Dubai, announced appointment of the new CEO Mr. Ayman Yousif Al Ajmi.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) will issue $1.5 billion (Dh5.5bn) worth of bonds in April to fund its ongoing expansion plans. When sold, Dewa would have raised nearly Dh10bn from international markets over the period of 12 months. Dewa is also looking at nearly doubling the size of its Export Credit Agency facility in the next few months

The report on Social Responsibility Trends at Islamic Financial Institutions presents the results of an extensive survey on Social Responsibility at Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) carried out during summer and fall of 2009 by DinarStandard and Dar Al Istithmar with the support of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

Some key findings of the survey were:

Clients: 100% of respondents answered yes to having a policy to screen prospective clients which is actively implemented. Similarly 97% have an organizational policy that deals with client responsibly.

Employees: 83% of respondents’ state having policies that provide equal opportunity to all their employees, 93% have policies that ensures merit-based salary and promotion, and 86% having policies that specifically prohibits any kind of discrimination. However, when it comes to having policy to monitor employees from different backgrounds and gender, the response was mix with only 52% admitting to having such a monitoring policy and 48% not having any such policy.

A muscular banking sector will make or break whether Iraq is to rebuild and prosper.

Iraq's financial architecture to support a growing, privatised economy is a bottom-up operation. The country remains a cash economy with a thriving black market. Private banks are thin on the ground, lending is sparse and there is no ingrained credit culture.

Local focus

In terms of commercial banking in the country, the landscape is principally local Iraqi banks and joint-venture banks. Products offered are in four main areas: remittances/cash transfers and some foreign exchange; trade finance; commercial lending; and securities and stockmarket trading. Activity in all of these areas is fairly limited.

Lending potential

The International Islamic Relief Organisation-Saudi Arabia (IIROSA) is to launch six endowment (waqf) projects in Makkah at a cost of over SR470 million, with annual returns of about SR45 million that will be used to finance the organisation’s relief and development projects.

Bahrain-based Sakana Holistic Housing Solutions and BMI Bank (BMI), an associate of Bank Muscat, signed a Commodity Murabaha Islamic Financing facility whereby BMI Bank provided BD 3 Million funding for 1 year to Sakana towards working capital requirements.

This agreement is in continuation of a 2 year relationship which both organizations with Islamic financing facilities amounting to BD 8.2 Million extended by BMI to Sakana which were repaid on due date.

Mr. Abdullah Bin Sulaiman Al Rajhi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Al Rajhi Bank announced that the bank has achieved a net profit for 2009 amounted to SAR 6,767 million ($1,804 million) compared to SAR 6,525 million ($1740 million) in 2008 with a rise of 4 per cent.

Alinma Bank's profit fell by 85 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 as its net income amounted to SR5.6 million ($1.49 million), compared to SR38.6 million ($10.29 million) for the previous quarter, according to a posting on the Saudi stock market (Tadawul) website on Saturday.

Kuwait's Investment Dar, the Islamic firm that co-owns British luxury carmaker Aston Martin, has received approval from almost 80% of creditors for a five-year plan to restructure about one billion dinars ($3.5 billion) of debt, two persons familiar with the plan told Zawya Dow Jones.