IslamicFinance.de

EtiQa promotes its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities throughout its one-month roadshow at Giant Hypermarket Tabuan Jaya.
The contest, which was for children with ages between three and 12 years old, saw encouraging participation since its registration on November 26 this year where 20 children entered the competition.
Judges for the contest contained EtiQa’s Sarawak regional chief executive officer Muhamad Yunos Mohd So’od, EtiQa’s branch manager Simon Lau and its group agency manager Simi Ujang.

Barwa Bank has made a strategic partnership with Allianz Takaful, to become the first Islamic lender to offer a comprehensive range of Shariah compliant unit linked takaful products to customers.
The new product range contains children education, retirement, life takaful (life insurance / protection) and lumpsum investment plans.
A professional dedicated relationship manager will help the customers in selecting the best suited products taking into consideration their current and future financial needs.

Various providers stated that the demand for Shariah-compliant PRI in MENA countries has increased significantly. Ravi Vish, director and chief economist of MIGA, also confirmed that request for political risk insurance (PRI) has increased to unprecedented levels, with PRI supply by members of the Berne Union remaining robust and pricing reflecting a buyer's market.
In the Arab Spring countries investors are waiting to see what the future will bring.
Moreover, a 2011 survey by MIGA-EIU showed that the turmoil in the Arab countries did have a significant impact on investor intentions. Violence and government instability are major factors putting off investors, who confirmed that they have not forseen the events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya which frankly took them by surprise.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest economy in the Middle East, is among the very few countries that have proved to be quite strong and robust.
According to Khaled Al-Aboodi, the chief executive officer of Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, the reason are the large number of effective reforms that were undertaken in the last few years. He added the fact that Saudi Arabia’s economy is anticipated to grow by 6.5 percent this year which is much higher than the average growth rate of both the developed as well as the developing countries.

Inspite of the extraordinary potential of the country, financial institutions in Pakistan are still not taking Islamic micro financing seriously.
According to Al Baraka Bank Chief Operating Officer Ahmed Shuja Kidwai, Islamic micro finance is notably important for Pakistan because it’s a developing economy and has a huge untapped market. He added that he was one of those managers who believe in learning the fundamentals of a market and analyzing how to make it into a success.
He gave as examples the following countries: Italy, Iran, India and Malaysia, which have grown their industries through micro financing in just 10-15 years.

According to Standard Chartered Saadiq, Islamic banking assets in the UAE are forseen to grow to 20 % of the total banking sector in 2012 from an estimated 18 % this year.
The bank anticipates Islamic assets to comprise 38 per cent of total consumer banking assets in the UAE in 2012, compared to about 35 per cent in 2010.
Globally, the Islamic banking industry is estimated to be worth $1 trillion.
Standard Chartered Saadiq plans to begin Islamic banking operations in Nigeria and Oman next year, as it seems to grow its Shariah-compliant business in the Middle East, Africa and southeast Asia.

Capital Market Authority (CMA) is developing a separate set of regulations for Sharia-compliant takaful insurance and Sukuk debt instruments.
Abdulla bin Salem Al Salmi, Acting Executive President of CMA, stated that the new regulations will be ready by the first quarter of next year. CBO, together with Ernst & Young, is currently defining a set of regulation, for Islamic banks.

Dubai Standard Chartered Saadiq is researching opportunities to expand into newly-opened Islamic banking markets such as Oman and Nigeria and is closely evaluating the opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
With the opening up of new markets in Mena and Africa, Standard Chartered awaites meaningful growth in the asset size of both Islamic banks and the Islamic banking operations of conventional banks.

Islamic Development Bank affiliate the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is helping to conduct a much needed Takaful offering to Azerbaijan through the development of a new Takaful company.
In order to manage this, ICD has included a local private partner for the first time in the form of Amrah Bank, Azerbaijan’s fifth largest bank.

Great Eastern Takaful will spread its presence across the Indonesian border in 2012.
GE Takaful hopes that by moving into the developing Islamic insurance market in the world’s most populous Muslim state, it will rapidly assume a top three market position.

Despite the fact that Zawya only covers Middle East-based funds, the sector is popular especially in Saudi Arabia, where 22 of the 24 funds listed are domiciled. The other two funds are from Kuwait and Bahrain.
There are two types of multi-manager funds: those that invest in a range of other funds controlled by different asset managers, named funds of funds, and those that appoint external managers with specific expertise to invest separate tranches of the provider’s portfolio, called manager of managers funds.
Analyzing funds of funds, it seems that there is a lot of interest in global Shari’ah compliant funds-of-funds (41.7%). Top performer is the $15.2m Al-Rajhi Multi Asset Conservative fund, managed by Mohammed Ishaq Ali of Al Rajhi Capital.

The most anticipated launch for some time is the slated $2bn Goldman Sachs (GS) Sukuk that will close at the end of this month.
Mohammed Khnifer, external Islamic finance specialist for Edcomm Group Banker’s Academy in New York, stated that although the path GS is taking is full of controversy, it could open the door for the western conventional finance industry to enter the Islamic finance in a big way.
Khnifer argues in the first place the tradability mechanism of the Sukuk threatenes its Shari’ah compliance. Second, he debates that with GS being the beating heart of Wall Street and standard-bearer of free-wheeling casino capitalism it cannot guarantee to Islamic investors that it will ring-fence the proceeds of its Sukuk to support just Shari’ah compliant, Riba-free activities; especially as it has no Islamic window.

Tanzania launched its first Islamic bank, Amana Bank, in the capital, Dar es Salaam. Amana Bank’s chairman, Haroon Pirmohamed, stated that the bank was launched to service the request for an ethical and interest-free alternative to conventional banking for Tanzania’s Muslims and anyone else who wished to bank in an ethical and transparent way.
Amana Bank will offer personal saving accounts, term deposit accounts, current accounts and, for religious institutions, Ihsan accounts.

Gulf International Bank (GIB) communicates the successful pricing and closing of a three-year $300 million Sukuk-al-Murabaha private placement with a profit rate of 6-month USD LIBOR + 130 bps on a semi-annual basis.
The Sukuk will mature on 7 December 2014. It was successfully placed with a number of institutional investors, with J.P. Morgan acting as Sole Manager of the placement.

The BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund (BOPE Fund) recently obtained a 20% stake in US-based CHF Development Finance International, a holding company established by development organization CHF International to own and manage CHF’s commercially-oriented microfinance subsidiaries.
The transaction empowered CHF Development Finance International’s capital structure and allows it to have seed capital to access new countries and expand its services.

Nakheel made payments to the tune of ?Dh7.3 billion ($2 billion) to its trade creditors.
Nakheel will launch another Dh1 billion of sukuk before the end of this year as part of its Dh59 billion restructuring deal with trade creditors.
Under the company’s restructuring plan, the developer has presented trade creditors repayment of 40 per cent cash and the remaining 60 % in the form of sukuk.
Bank creditors will be offered an interest rate of four per cent over London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and repayment after five years.

November 2011 showed a record number of sukuk issues totaling USD 8.86 billion globally, according to data compiled by Zawya Sukuk Monitor. Major launches contain a global seven-year USD 1 billion sukuk sold by Indonesia in the international markets followed by a similar seven-year USD 750 billion international sukuk by the Central Bank of Bahrain.
On the corporate level, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank sold five-year USD 500 million international sukuk each. These five issues advanced sukuk issuance to a record in November.
Major announcements of new sukuk were also made in November - some of which might hit the market as soon as December or during the first half of 2012.

Bank Indonesia (BI) stated that it is offering reverse repo for sharia banks and business units to decrease bank liquidity in the financial system.
Reverse repo transactions ask banks to buy at least Rp 1 billion (US$110,000) of government sukuk from the central bank and receive margins when they buy back at an agreed price after a specified time period. This has the purpose to absorbe the liquidity of sharia banks, especially of banks with finance-to-deposit ratios of at least 80% and those that participate in BI’s sharia monetary operation.

INDONESIA'S central bank has launched a new regulation that grant the trade of sharia bonds for its reverse repo operations, effective starting Dec 1, in a move aimed at deepening the local sukuk market.
The rule has the purpose to absorbe excess liquidity from the financial system. Indonesian sharia banks can aquire at least 1 billion rupiah (US$110,700) of sukuk from the central bank, for which they will collect transaction margins.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s leading businesswomen are researching investment opportunities to work with Malaysians in two areas - Islamic finance and halal food.
According to Fatima Al Jaber, president of the Abu Dhabi Business Women Council and chief operating officer of Al Jaber Group, Islamic finance and halal food are the two mutual areas that Malaysia and UAE could work together. She added that UAE offered huge opportunities for Malaysians in many areas including leisure, hotel, sports, property, healthcare and education.