IslamicFinance.de

Achieving sustainability is the core of corporate social responsibility (CSR) worldwide, according to Tamkeen Company CEO Asya Al-Ashaikh. The focus is on interactions between the government and private sectors to boost CSR locally and create a Saudi CSR model, she added. Al-Ashaikh explained that CSR in the Kingdom needs to be led ideally by government entities. Moreover, CSR is not about donations and philanthropy but about corporates addressing socioeconomic and environmental issues based on their core competency, according to the Tamkeen CEO.

The third edition of Saudi Corporate Social Responsibility Forum (CSRF) will be held in Jeddah from April 9-10.
The event is being organized by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI) at the Park Hyatt Hotel.
The winner of the CSRF Award recognizing best practices and initiatives in social responsibility will be announced at the forum, which will have the participation of a number of senior government officials, experts and businessmen from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Arab world. The fórum is expected to review a number of key issues, especially the performance of Saudi companies in social responsibility programs.

Bank AlJazira registered a net income of SR 98 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. Compared to Q4 2011 this is a decrease of 11% from SR110 million. The difference compared to Q3 2012 is 25% in favour of Q3. Other important parts of the annual financial results of the bank are a total operating income of SR372 million for the last quarter of 2012 which is a 13% increase to the SR330 million for Q4, 2011. The net special commission income for Q4 2012 registered an increase of 25% from Q4 2011 reaching SR247 million.

During 2012, members of Aman Union have provided $ 17.4 billion for investment and export insurance for OIC countries. According to Secretary-General Dr. Abdel-Rahman Taha, this contribution by the union is 17.6% higher than the one in 2010. He further expressed deep concern about the uncertain economic outlook which prevails globally.

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

At the 12th meeting of the Centennial Fund's board of trustees works of the fund and a strategic plan until the year 2020 were revisited. The goal of the plan is to boost small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A large number of projects will receive money from the fund. The new strategy also aims to increase the amount of jobs and to fight poverty and unemployment.

Alinma Bank has launched a new financing services, through whichclients are given free promotional gifts with the first personal financing (real estate, car or share financing) deal they complete with the bank.

Fahad Al-Semari, Alinma’s GM for retail banking, said the bank would offer a wide range of valuable gifts including BMW cars, electrical appliances (televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.) as well as the Mobily Limited service.

NCB Capital, a GCC wealth manager and Saudi Arabia's largest investment bank, has signed an exclusive agreement with INJAZ-Saudi Arabia to sponsor a three-year financial literacy-training program for male and female Saudi university students.

Appeal No. 146 of 2010 by Parsoli Corporation Ltd dismissed on Jan. 12 by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The Appeal was against a ruling by SEBI that Parsoli and its promoters/directors violated several provisions of the regulations and perpetrated “fraud of the worst kind on the shareholders of this company who were deprived of their shares and when caught, the directors compensated the shareholders by crediting shares in their demat accounts through off market transactions.”

The possibility of the first sovereign or corporate sukuk origination out of France took a step nearer when the French government announced that it had passed new instructions to facilitate the introduction of sukuk, Ijara, Murabaha and Istisna products in France.

It is claimed that France now has a tax neutrality regime in place for facilitating Islamic financial products including Islamic bonds and certificates; cost-plus-financing; leasing and construction industry forward financing.

French banks such as Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, UBAF, Calyon (Banque Credit Agricole) have long been involved in global Islamic finance. BNP Paribas for instance recently listed its first Islamic exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Asia on Bursa Malaysia. Some two years ago it had advised the Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, to launch its first Islamic ETF, MyETF i. The new measures are not limited to a particular transaction but form a basis for a framework for Murabaha, Istisna, Ijara and sukuk transactions which satisfy both French law and Shariah principles.

The launch of the UK Islamic Finance Secretariat (UKIFS) by the lord mayor of the City of London, Alderman Nick Anstee, at a reception at Mansion House on March 31, marks the establishment of the first Islamic finance trade body in Britain.

Malaysia's offshore financial center in Labuan i.e. the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) has been put in the "white listing" by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) due to compliance with its standards for transparency and exchange of information between countries. This is a significant contribution of Labuan FSA in supporting the Malaysian government's agenda toward promoting Malaysia as a major hub for international Islamic finance.

As Islamic finance is growing very rapidly in the United States, the US-based Florentez Investment Management Inc. (ShariahShares ETF) is set to launch a family of Shariah-compliant exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).

Asya Participation Bank is now directly accessing the international financial markets for financing. Asya Bank is also innovating new products including a new card family, under the "DIT Pratik" brand. The DIT Pratik card is a EMV contactless card.

The Saudi mortgage law, once passed would drive Saudi housing demand and prices as more people access the market.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) has entered into a joint venture agreement with Capitas Group, LLC, a US financial services firm specializing in developing and managing Shariah-compliant finance companies, to form a management company dedicated to the global development of the Shariah-compliant finance industry. ICD is a multilateral financial institution, which is part of the Islamic Development Bank.

The launch of Europe’s first dedicated Islamic Finance and business Center at a mainstream British university, Aston Business School, which is part of Aston University in Birmingham, underlines the growing Islamic finance education industry in and out of the UK.

The El Shaarani Islamic Finance and Business Center, named after its benefactor El Shaarani, CEO of Surgi-Tech Group in Dubai, aims to establish Birmingham as the center for Islamic finance in the UK.

The global growth of Islamic finance and the UK banks’ long involvement in the sector since the early 1980s, has encouraged professional bodies, academic institutions and some private entities to set up Islamic finance courses ranging from certificates, diplomas, undergraduate, masters and post-graduate degrees in Islamic finance and economics.

“Islamic finance is, and will continue to be, an important part of the government’s overall commitment to ensuring a competitive financial services sector in the UK,” reiterated Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP, exchequer secretary to Treasury, in London at a seminar entitled “New Year — New Opportunities in Islamic Finance,” hosted by the international law firm, Norton Rose, in London recently.

This statement of intent coincides with two notable developments relevant to the European Islamic finance sector in the last two weeks or so. Firstly, the UK Treasury and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have been working to remove barriers and uncertainty in the regulation of alternative finance investment bonds (sukuk).

Following consultation with the industry, the statutory instrument, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 Order 2010, was sent to the House of Commons in mid-January, and the Brown government is confident that the new regulations will come into effect by the end of February. These measures, stressed McCarthy-Fry, will reduce compliance and legal costs for these instruments, and facilitate the issuance of corporate sukuk in the UK.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), said it was committed to ensure that its plan to set up an Islamic bank in the Maldives in partnership with the government of the island would materialize soon.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the central bank, is pressing ahead with developing a series of Shariah parameters that would provide a standard guidance on applying the respective Shariah contracts in Islamic finance.

In fact, BNM in December 2009 published its latest draft concept paper -- a Shariah Parameter Reference 3 (SPRC 3) -- on the Mudarabah contract. The paper has been sent to various market players in the Islamic finance industry for feedback. This follows the publishing in October 2009 of "Concept Paper -- Guidelines on Takaful Operational Framework" which outlines the parameters governing the operational processes of the Takaful business.