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As a respected elder figure among the Muslim grassroots, Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin was initially expected to play a significant role in enacting policies that could benefit the country’s majority-Muslim population. But analysts have suggested that Ma’ruf could still do more to promote the sharia economy and finance. The government launched a masterplan for the sharia economy last year, which provides a five-year development roadmap. The plan hopes to transform Indonesia into a net producer of halal goods and services, instead of merely being a big market for them. According to analysts, Ma’ruf should encourage the state to focus more on developing the sharia economy, particularly in providing stimulus programs among sharia-based businesses and strengthening sharia institutions.

Sustainable investing is increasing in popularity as more investors and companies prioritise the need to act responsibly in order to create a positive lasting impact on the community and the environment. Shariah-compliant investing shares many similarities and goals with sustainable investing. Governments, institutions and the younger generation are more concerned about environmental issues such as climate change. As such, they demand more independent governance structures and want corporations to fulfil social responsibilities. Maybank Asset Management recently launched the Maybank Global Sustainable Equity-i Fund, its first actively managed shariah-compliant ESG fund that invests in both shariah-compliant and sustainable companies in the global markets. A minimum of 80% of the fund will be in shariah-compliant equities and shariah-compliant related securities. The rest of the fund will be invested in Islamic liquid assets.

Investor appetite for green sukuk is growing in the Arabian Gulf countries despite the lukewarm economic growth amidst the ongoing pandemic. Saudi Arabia’s electric transmission monopoly, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), issued a multi-tranche $1.3 billion green sukuk and reported an order book of more $5.2 billion, indicating the immense appetite for sustainable Islamic bonds. The proceeds of SEC’s sukuk will be used to finance green projects relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Currently, Saudi Arabia is almost exclusively reliant on fossil fuels for power generation and has a high energy usage per capita because of its reliance on air conditioning and desalinated water. The green sukuk market is still in its infancy, with only a handful of issuances taking place.

The Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt has reported a 9.3% increase in its volume of business to EGP 112.751bn in August 2020, compared to EGP 103.149bn in August 2019. The bank’s total assets reached EGP 109.713bn in August 2020, which reflects a 13% growth compared to the EGP 97.124bn reported in August 2019. Faisal Islamic Bank aims to open five new branches over the course of the current year, bringing its total network of branches to 41. It aims to further expand its branch network to 46 by the end of 2021. The bank also plans to offer a number of new services, including “Meeza” debit and pre-paid cards, and new bill e-payment service “Fawri”.

Escorts Investment Bank Limited (EIBL) is planning to launch Islamic housing finance. Malik Riaz, the Pakistani business tycoon owns EIBL. The new financing is expected to help in the business of the parent project of EIBL, Bahria Town. Bahria Town recently announced a cheap housing scheme in different cities for both Pakistani residents and expatriates. The scheme would appeal to customers towards the housing project as well as the bank. Shariah-compliant housing finance and micro-financing products are to be issued by EIBL besides the earlier offered interest-based products.

Emirates Islamic Bank has hired banks to arrange the issuance of U.S. dollar-denominated five-year sukuk.
It hired Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, and Standard Chartered to arrange investor calls that started on Monday.

Oman's Ministry of Finance announced to launch of the third issue of sovereign sukuk denominated in Omani rials within the framework of the sovereign sukuk programme launched in 2019. The ministry has appointed Bank Muscat and its Islamic window (Meethaq) to manage the bond issuance and it can be subscribed through all licensed banks operating in the Sultanate. Oman is currently facing financial challenges as a result of the decline in oil prices and the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic, which have directly contributed to the sharp decline in global oil prices since the beginning of this year.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has partnered with the UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) to offer the new range of eDirham cards. eDirham cards offer a smart payment method accepted by more than 5,000 government services in ministries, federal and local authorities. The system offers many advantages, including low costs and the possibility of paying service fees through different payment channels, which include eDirham apps for phones, e-wallet, vouchers, and self-service eKiosks. The ADIB eDirham Gold and ADIB eDirham Signature cards represent the third generation of the eDirham cashless payment service.

KFH-Bahrain launched a first-of-its-kind Shari'a compliant Securitization Program which offers a series of Mudaraba Sukuk under a trust structure. Under the program, sukuk will be issued against a select pool of financing portfolios, where the sukuk holders become the ultimate beneficiaries of the financing portfolio. The program can also be used for non-KFH-Bahrain financing portfolios, where the Bank acts as an arranger. Mr. Rashid Alkhan, Head of Wealth Management says the program provides an opportunity for clients to diversify their portfolio allocation strategy. The program will increase market activity and financial institution's ability to finance housing units in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Banking has fueled racial inequity and social harm in many ways and for a long time. Before the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, banks regularly contributed to racial segregation and wealth inequality in the US by refusing to make loans to Black Americans or in neighborhoods that were predominantly Black. In the 2000s, Black and Latin Americans who were able to purchase homes and gain some wealth were disproportionately targeted for high-cost predatory loans. When the crash came, the nation’s already enormous racial wealth gap grew even larger. Banks continue to fund fossil fuel firms, prisons, detention centers, and payday lenders. Most organizations and individuals are unknowingly funding these activities with their deposits. The Beneficial State Foundation established the Equitable Bank Standards that clearly define both mission-aligned and harmful practices of banks. With the nonprofit sector accounting for over $3 trillion in assets, aligning money with values could make a huge difference.

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) signed a US$100 million Murabaha-structured line of trade finance with Mizuho Bank Malaysia, a subsidiary of Mizuho Bank Japan. This financing will help ITFC extend its support to the member countries under its COVID-19 Response Plan. The financing is ITFC’s first partnership with a Japanese bank, signalling an expansion of its partners around the world. The virtual signing ceremony took place between Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO ITFC and Mr. Shojiro Mizoguchi, the Managing Director & CEO, Mizuho Bank (Malaysia) and witnessed by Mr. Hidekatsu Take, the Managing Executive Officer of Mizuho Bank.

Jaiz Bank has projected that the flagship non-interest bank will post a gross income of N5.41 billion in the fourth quarter with average pre-tax profit per average sales expected at 13.03%. The bank predicted that profit before tax will be N705.37 million while profit after tax is expected to close the three-month period at N634.83 million. Jaiz Bank Managing Director Hassan Usman said overall vision of the bank was to become the leading non-interest financial institution in Sub-Saharan Africa. The bank wants to develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs), grow with them and support them not only for profit making but to ensure the country achieves real growth. He noted that while the bank would continue to expand its operations across the country by opening more branches, it will significantly leverage on technology and bring the semi-banked and unbanked population into the formal economy.

Asia Pacific Investment Bank (APIB) will be launching an Islamic digital finance fund in Malaysia to invest in shariah-compliant financial technology (fintech) start-ups. The fund will be launched in collaboration with OUD Asset Management, a boutique fund management company. APIB director Datuk Foo Yong Hooi said the bank also collaborates with Ripple to explore ways to facilitate cross-border transactions more efficiently. According to Foo, the collaboration with OUD is very important now as the financial industry is adopting digital transformation at a pace faster than ever before, and this fund would be able to support the digital economy transformation of Malaysia.

Arabesque is a UK based fund manager. Their basic premise is that they combine cutting-edge artificial intelligence and algorithms with a powerful ethical screening tool. Arabesque consists of academics coming from a diverse array of fields including physics, computer science, artificial intelligence, and engineering. Through machine learning, big data and over 2501 environmental, social and governance metrics (ESG), its help investors to make more sustainable decisions. It also live-captures news signals from over 30,000 sources from over 170 countries and quantifies this information to form part of the analytics. Arabesque Q3.17 Systematic is a global Shariah compliant fund launched in 2015, adhering to Shariah investment guidelines and utilising the Systematic strategy. The smart algorithms adhere to a strict rules-based, quantitative approach and incorporate the Islamic shariah guidelines from AAOIFI.

The Digitization In Banking Market report focuses on the comprehensive analysis of current and future prospects of the Digitization In Banking industry. Top Key Vendors of this Market includes: Islamic Insurance Company, JamaPunji, AMAN, Salama, Standard Chartered, Takaful Brunei Darussalam, Allianz, Prudential BSN Takaful, Zurich Malaysia, Takaful Malaysia and Qatar Islamic Insurance Company. The report can be purchased at https://www.a2zmarketresearch.com/buy?reportId=64965

According to a recent analysis by asset management firm Arabesque, Shariah-compliant companies scored better than the overall group in 19 out of 22 environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) categories. For the vast majority of 22 business topics, Shariah-compliant companies outperform the wider dataset, and most strongly in the areas of labour rights, human rights, environmental management and water use. One of the most recent companies to adopt the AAOIFI Code of Ethics for Islamic Finance Professionals is Ethis Global, which believes it is the first Islamic fintech to do so. The Malaysian social crowdfunding platform is also a signatory to the the United Nations Global Compact (GC).

The Islamic fintech space is growing in Malaysia, with recent entrants and an expanding consumer base. Government support and related initiatives are helping to drive the sector’s development. There are currently some 26 Islamic fintechs operating out of the country. While Malaysians have the possibility to bank in a Shariah-compliant manner, Islamic fintech has not yet reflected the same range of services that conventional fintech has offered, particularly in North America, Europe and China. Such gaps in the market have yet to be tapped, but there is a ready market for such services. A new digital bank could drive sectoral development, with Bank Negara Malaysia granting five licenses, with one potentially an Islamic provider.

Shariah-compliant investments are resilient and even tend to perform better than their conventional peers in troubled times. This was proven during the first half of the year, when the average returns of global and Malaysian equity shariah funds were higher than those of their conventional counterparts. Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, executive director and CEO of Kenanga Investors, notes that shariah funds in general have outperformed due to their lack of exposure to the banking sector and a higher weighting in defensive sectors such as healthcare and telecommunications. Despite signs of improving economic data, De Alwis expects the equity market to remain volatile. As the market grapples with the risk of surging Covid-19 infections, governments could be forced to reimpose restrictions on business activities.

The Walton Group's Exit-Focused Land investment has been endorsed by the Amanie Shariah Supervisory Board as a Shariah-compliant investment product. Walton’s exit-focused pre-development land investment provides an innovative solution to U.S. public homebuilders as they move to streamline and optimize their land inventory pipelines. Walton is a privately owned, leading global real estate investment, land asset management and administration company that has focused on strategically located land in major growth corridors for 40-plus years. The company manages and administers US$3.39 billion of real estate assets in North America. Walton has more than 104,000 acres of land under ownership, management and administration in the United States and Canada.

Egypt’s Ministry of Finance has signed the first conventional and Islamic financing facility, worth $2bn, to finance the state’s budget deficit. The facility was closed by Emirates NBD Capital Limited, and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) as the transaction’s global coordinators, mandated lead arrangers, and book runners. The main authorised regulators and the offering managers include Mashreq Bank, ABC Islamic Bank, British Standard Chartered Bank, Islamic HSBC, the Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), and the Japanese Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.