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The upcoming Global Islamic Finance Forum 2016 to be held in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur from May 10 to 12 will see a special competition for financial technology, the Asean Fintech Challenge. Organised by credit card company Visa and the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia, the challenge aims at bringing the most innovative fintech startups to compete. Here the teams have the opportunity to present their ideas to over 500 Islamic finance delegates from all over the world.

Indonesia seeks to expand Islamic banking and has sought Qatar’s help in developing Shariah-compliant banking in the South East Asian country. Indonesian ambassador Muhammad Basri Sidehabi recently visited QIIB headquarters where they held talks with the bank CEO Abdulbasit Ahmed al-Shaibei. Ambassador Sidehabi said the delegation’s visit to QIIB was aimed at benefiting from Qatar’s Islamic banking experience and further expanding the areas of cooperation. He spoke about the great efforts being made by the authorities in Indonesia, where there is a huge demand for Shariah-based banking services.

Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India, Mr. H. R. Khan emphasizes the importance of bringing unbanked and unreached people into the formal financial system by leveraging technology, especially the mobile phone technology. Various studies have revealed the absence of Islamic financial system in the country as one of the major reasons of backwardness of Muslims in India. These studies revealed that Muslims in India have worst credit-deposit ratio due to unavailability of interest free loans which are compatible to the Islamic principles. With 97% workers engaged in unorganized sector, the Indian Muslims need interest free loans to improve their labour output ratio and value additions to foster inclusive growth.

The regional banking sector has entered a new paradigm with margin compression, tightening liquidity, moderate asset and profit growth, limited capital market activity, greater focus on cost reduction and a widespread need for greater capital and funding. KPMG, which analysed the results of 56 leading listed commercial banks in the GCC, noted Qatar's listed banks remain relatively resilient and their long-term outlook remains positive. Omar Mahmood, Head of Financial Services for KPMG said Qatar experienced the second highest growth rate in the region thanks to an increase in corporate lending as a result of the infrastructure boom.

The Islamic finance industry is still searching for a stance on to what extent conventional international law should be accepted in arbitration cases. Conservative scholars argue that non-Muslim courts should not be written into contracts as a reference for arbitrations. Islamic scholar Sheikh Saleh Abdulla al-Haidan said contracts, in which both parties agree that British law should be reference for the contract and therefore any arbitrations, violates Islamic law. According to the scholars contract parties should include arbitration centres compliant with sharia law as reference in contracts.

According to Kuwait Finance Centre Markaz the Middle East will see $58 billion in bond and Sukuk issuance in 2016 and $385 to $390 billion through 2020. The excess allocation towards real estate has been exasperated by the shortage of Shari'ah-compliant fixed income. The next few years may be challenging for the GCC and its Takaful companies if energy prices stay low because the low penetration rate of insurance and Takaful has led to an extremely competitive market. A pipeline of around $60 billion per year for the next five years will support banks and Takaful operators to manage their balance sheets and support growth.

Maybank Islamic, Asia Pacific's largest sharia bank, is not currently seeking a strategic partner, its acting chief said after earlier talk that it would merge with the country's second Islamic bank. Acting CEO Ibrahim Hassan said Maybank Islamic is only interested in partnerships for specific business products such as the joint issue of credit cards. Malaysian financial group BIMB Holdings also denied that it was in talks to merge its sharia banking subsidiary Bank Islam with Maybank Islamic.

National carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) has appointed HSBC as the lead arranger for a 5 billion riyal ($1.3 billion) sukuk issue. According to director general Saleh al-Jasser the sukuk would be sold in the second half of the year. Jasser said last month that the sukuk offering would finance fleet expansion, with the carrier aiming to operate 200 aircrafts by 2020.

The Council of Ministers presents Saudi Arabia’s vision for the future. Saudi Arabia will transform the Public Investment Fund into the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. They will expand the variety of digital services to reduce delays and cut bureaucracy. Goals by 2030 include increasing non-oil government revenue from SR163 billion to SR1 trillion, raising the country's ranking in the Government Effectiveness Index from 80 to 20, raising the ranking on the E-Government Survey Index from a current position of 36 to be among the top five nations.

Sukuk linked to Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate will provide investors protection against rising inflation in Turkey. The short term sukuk, known as rental certificates in Turkey was issued with a maturity of 729 days. The issue was subscribed by means of a private placement at a profit rate of 3.39 % above the CPI rate.

Malaysian transportation provider Perak Transit aims to raise RM10mil in the form of a RM10mil term financing facility for three years via the investment account platform (IAP). Bank Muamalat is acting as the investment manager for the exercise, where the RM10mil is expected to generate a return of 6.5% per annum to investors. Investors can register at iaplatform.com to place their investments in Perak Transit, which starts at a minimum of RM10,000.

1MDB has confirmed the default in IPIC guaranteed bonds but assured that there are no cross defaults on the bonds guaranteed by the Malaysian government. 1MDB explained the limited default from the non-payment of USD50.3 million interest on the Langat Notes is due to non-payment by International Petroleum Investment Company and reassured investors of the company's intention to meet its financial obligations.

Khalid Al Aboudi, Chief Executive Officer of Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), rang the market-opening bell to celebrate the listing of a 300 million US dollar Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai. The total nominal value of Sukuk currently listed in Dubai has now reached $42.61 billion, more than the value listed in any other centre. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group has seven other Sukuk currently outstanding on Nasdaq Dubai that have listed since 2014, with a total nominal value of $8.05 billion.

RHB Islamic International Asset Management (IIAM) has launched the RHB Islamic Asian Megatrend Fund, leveraging on the growth potential of Asian markets. According to RHB Group Asset Management managing director Eliza Ong the total assets under the fund stand at RM127 million. The fund is looking at a return of between eight and 12 per cent per annum over the next three to five years.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said on Sunday its shareholders have approved the decision to pay more than 24 per cent, or Dh0.2427, per share for the year. The annual general assembly also approved the financial statements for the year to December 2015. The bank posted an 11 per cent increase in net profit in 2015. The bank recorded a net profit of Dh1.943 billion compared with Dh1.75 billion in the same period in the previous year.

Noor Bank reported a net operating profit of Dh561 million for the year 2015, up 40 per cent compared to 2014. The bank attributed increase in profitability to a 73 per cent surge in fee and commission income and a 35 per cent rise in net income from financing. Bank’s total assets increased 36 per cent to Dh39 billion in 2015 compared to Dh29 billion in 2014. While customer financing grew by 29 per cent during 2015 customer deposits were up 35 per cent to Dh32.1 billion last year.

Emirates Islamic announced the launch of Social Banking, offering banking services via Twitter, making it the first Islamic bank in the UAE to offer banking services on a social media platform. Faisal Aqil, Deputy CEO, said banking via twitter is especially relevant given the UAE’s advanced social media and mobile phone penetration. Customers will be able to perform select transactions such as balance enquiry, view their last few transactions, and make enquiries about their accounts or credit cards with a simple tweet. To maintain privacy and confidentiality, the bank will only respond to customer queries via a direct message.

Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance decided to give over ninety percent of its content, the Handbook of Islamic Finance, free of charge. The 800 page ebook came out of the Certified Islamic Finance Executive program as a handy way for bankers and students to access everything in one place: contracts, articles, recommended readings, hundreds of answers to questions, and Dr. Usmani's entire Guide to Islamic Banking. Ethica's spokesperson said the ebook is designed to take a newcomer to Islamic finance through the basics of how a market works on principles of equity, trade, and leasing, without debt.

University of New Orleans finance professor M. Kabir Hassan has won the IDB Prize in Islamic Banking & Finance from the Islamic Development Bank.The prize is awarded for outstanding merit in the fields of Islamic economics, banking and finance. Hassan will receive an award of about $47,000. He will be presented with the prize at the IDB board of governors’ annual meeting May 15-19 in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he will also deliver a lecture on his research in Islamic finance.

KT Bank AG, a subsidiary of Kuveyt Türk Katilim Bankasi A.S., is the first Islamic bank in the Eurozone. CEO Kemal Ozan said his bank has officially established a previously unknown business model in this region. As location for the registered office he chose Germany where only 5% of the German Muslim population adheres to Islamic banking. When this is measured against the number of more than four million Muslims in Germany, a huge growth potential can be anticipated. The economic exchange between Germany and the Gulf region opens new opportunities for the mid-tier segment with regard to sales markets, and for Europe as a recipient for Arabic investors. In this respect KT Bank AG wants to serve as a bridge between Germany and the MENA region.