IslamicFinance.de

Oman’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) has disclosed to The Times of Oman that it will favour standalone Takaful companies, which is against the window operations proposed for conventional banks.
Abdullah bin Salem al Salmi, Acting Executive President of Capital Market Authority, noted that the minimum capital for promoting a Takaful insurance company is anticipated at OMR 10 million.
Moreover, a conventional insurance company planning to enter a Takaful business must search a separate licence and form a separate company.

KFH-Research prepared a report about Islamic wealth management industry around the world.
The report noted that this industry has great growth potentials during the coming years, in light of the growing number of rich Muslims, constant growth of Islamic assets, and the increasing demand for Shariah compliant services and products in Islamic and non-Islamic countries. It showed that the volume of Islamic assets reached USD 1.3 billion by the end of last year.

According to Mohamed Awad Bin Humam, the governor of the Yemeni central bank, his country plans to launch Islamic bonds soon to finance government projects.

According to ADEP Managing Partner, Muneef O. Tarmoom, primary industry research proovs that approximately 24 per cent of leading Islamic banks' balance sheets are invested in cash or its equivalent often because of no other reason other than sparse availability of alternative liquidity management instruments.
He added that Abu Dhabi Equity Partners made it its mission to develop asset-backed liquidity management solutions that would lessen low-yielding excess cash, assist in improving asset liability matching particularly in the 0-three month maturity space, and enhance banks’ overall risk adjusted return.

It seems that Iranian authorities have brought to trial 32 people suspected of involvement in a multi-billion dollar banking fraud with alleged links to the government of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The case spinns around forged documents allegedly used by the directors of the Amir Mansour Arya Investment Co to secure loans totalling $2.6bn to buy state-owned companies under the government's privatisation scheme.

Al Hilal Bank will launch its first sukuk fund, the Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund, advocating the bank's full commitment to product and service innovation and its keen interest in strategic segments of the financial services sector.
Investors will have the opportunity to allot a minimum subscription of $10,000 at an initial NAV of $10 per unit.
Fund sponsor will be Al Hilal Bank while CIMB Principal Islamic Asset Management will serve as the fund's investment advisor.

aiz Bank Plc, has begun full operation of non-interest commercial banking in Nigeria from three branches in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.
It seems that most of the early customers were groups of business institutions and private individuals from different religious persuasions making enquiries as well as opening different accounts.
The introduction of Islamic banking is part of a drive by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to force Nigeria’s economy and promote financial inclusion by presenting alternative products.

Gatehouse Bank based in London, has surpassed the USD half billion mark in real estate investment acquisitions, on behalf of its GCC investors. This was succeeded after the acquisition of a multi-million dollar US student property portfolio, "The Republic at Denton" and "The Republic at Lubbock" in Texas, USA providing investors a net cash yield of 7.0% per annum and a projected IRR of 9.0% over a hold period of five years.
The newly built, multi-million dollar developed properties were obtained in partnership with US-based student housing specialty operator, The Scion Group LLC.

Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) appointed Ms. Sabeen Saleem, CFA as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of IIRA on February 2, 2012.
Ms. Saleem has 14 years of experience in financial risk assessments spanning Banks, Manufacturing Concerns, Fund Managers and Insurance Companies, with specialized focus on Islamic finance in all of these areas.

Arab Islamic Bank gave Palestine Exchange (PEX) unaudited year-end preliminary financial statements. The PEX disclosure rules in place give all of PEX listed companies a period of 45 days to report their preliminary annual financial statements reviewed by the company's internal auditor.
The disclosed information contains:
1) A copy of the year-end preliminary financial statements signed by Assistant General Manager and internal auditor of the company.
2) The company attached with the disclosure "the summary of year-end preliminary financial statements" form for PEX.

BankDhofar has chosen Deloitte & Touche for a market assessment and feasibility study into the launching of an Islamic Window at the Bank. This study comes after the Royal Decree launched last year by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, which agrees with the establishment of Islamic Banking in the Sultanate.
BankDhofar is committed to the implementation of Islamic financial services and has already invested in some training programmes for its executives providing them with insights into planning and acquiring Islamic banking products and services. The bank has also chosen a new Head of Islamic Banking, to prepare the Bank to manage this new service through dedicated Islamic windows.

According to the International Monetary Fund, complete segregation of Islamic and conventional banking in Qatar “should reduce the risk of contagion” from one segment to the other in case banking troubles arise in either one.
In February last year, Qatar Central Bank had managed local conventional banks that have Islamic windows, to stop opening new Islamic branches, accepting Islamic deposits, and extending new Islamic financing from 2012. In QCB’s concept, the overlapping nature of non-Islamic and Islamic activities makes banks’ risk management and compliance with prudential requirements more complex.

Kuwait Finance House is eager to offer its clients banking products that bond the value of saving, saving being a main factor in boosting the local economy.
The new account is a combination between the advantages of investment saving accounts and Islamic Takaful insurance. "Jameati Account" permits parents to aim a specific amount of money which will be saved within a predetermined period to finance the high educational expenses of their children. The monthly saving is invested and profits are added to the Jameati Account. When the child becomes 18 years the targeted saving amount plus the profits will be available and the parent and the child will decide the best university to follow higher education and this university could be in any part of the world.

Dubai Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) reported a full-year net loss due to significantly higher impairments on financing and investment activities and a rush in expenses.
The bank's total assets fell more than 32 per cent to Dh21.48 billion from Dh32.74 billion in 2010. The bank's full year fin-ancial performance was affected by a 15 per cent increase in expenses.

Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) successfully closed a three-year SR2.5 billion ($667 million) syndicated Shariah-compliant facility from four leading Saudi Arabian banks on competitive market terms.
The purpose of the facility is the retaining and increasing of its medium term funding.
Mandated lead arrangers for the facility will be leading Saudi banks Riyad Bank, Al-Rajhi Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi and The Saudi British Bank, while Riyad Bank will perform the role of Murabaha Facility Agent.

The TFSA developed an Islamic Finance Working Group that published a report a while back on the Islamic Financial opportunities and challenges in Canada.
Some of the issues included are:
- The treatment of profit in a Murabaha transaction
- The treatment of double sale transactions where assets exchange hands generating GST and other taxes every time a sale is executed. Ideally for such transactions where assets exchange hands as part of a single deal, tax adjustments should be made in order to treat it all a single transaction.
- In Diminishing Musharaka (declining partnership) transactions when the financier is an equity partner in the asset, compliance obligations and costs can potentially make the product uncompetitive.

Official statistics reveal that only about 38 percent of Saudis own houses, including the communal ones. Banking sources stated this rate as low compared to the other developed countries, where 65 to 75 percent of the population own houses.
Therefor, commercial banks will increase their real estate financing this year. Khaled Al-Othman, chairman of the corporate banking services in Al-Jazira Bank, noted that the demand for houses would annually increase as very few Saudis own private homes.

According to Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Yerima Ngama, discussions reached advanced stage between the federal government and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to secure a $600 million-loan for infrastructure development in the country.
He added that the loan which is on a three to four-year borrowing plan without interest had already passed the screening stages and would soon be made available for federal and state government projects, but there were some criteria yet to be satisfied by government before it could get the funding.
For example, he said some of the projects which funding was being sought for have not actually begun. Therefor, he noted that there was need to apply for funds ahead of time.

Sarawak DAP has the strong oppinion that Bank Negara Malaysia must immediately investigate the practice of banks charging interests on loans under the Islamic banking principles as this is tantamount to borrowing money from loan sharks.
Chong Chieng Jen, party secretary, states that taking the Islamic banking principles into consideration, a borrower who defaults on his loan payment would be charged future interests on the period of the loan, if, for example, it is a 30-year loan.

Oman is close to finishing a draft rulebook for Islamic banking in the Gulf Arab country. The statement came from central bank governor Hamud al-Zadjali. The central bank got together with local lenders on Jan. 25 to discuss the regulations.
He added that the guidelines won’t be finished before the banking law is improved by mid-year to incorporate lenders that comply with the religion’s ban on interest.
Shariah-compliant banking will allow lenders in the country the chance to tap growth in the global Islamic finance industry.