IslamicFinance.de

The Skoll Foundation gave the 2012 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship to Gawad Kalinga (www.gk1world.com). The Skoll Foundation invests in, connects and celebrates social entrepreneurs and the innovators who assistem them in solving the world’s most pressing problems.
This year’s Skoll Awardees join the growing global network of 91 Skoll social entrepreneurs from 74 organizations who are dealing with the world’s most pressing problems. The Skoll Awards will be formally presented by Skoll Foundation Chairman Jeff Skoll and CEO Osberg at a ceremony that will take place on March 29, 2012.

Global Forestry Capital S.A.R.L. (GFC) has joined the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative (PRI) as a signatory member. Global Forestry joins a community of over 950 investment signatory institutions, with assets under management reaching nearly US$ 30 trillion.
Global Forestry Capital advises the Global Forestry Growth Fund LFP PRIME SICAV SIF, a fully-regulated, open-ended Luxembourg-based fund. According to Stefan Proietti, Director at GFC, the fund is set to offer investors with an opportunity to take advantage from long term capital growth from investing directly and indirectly in sustainable forestry plantations, land and private equity ventures within the forestry sector.

Middle Eastern publicly recorded companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of online transparency as part of their strategy to administer best practice investor relations.
This is the key conclusion of the 2011 KWD Middle East Webranking survey that annually reviews corporate websites across the region based on the requirements of the investment community.
The survey prooves that an increasing number of companies are revolving to online channels to communicate with shareholders, disclosing more information on financials, corporate governance, CSR initiatives and company news on their websites.
The winners of the KWD Webranking Survey are as followed: Al Khalij Commercial Bank from Qatar presented itself as overall winner in the Middle East, followed by Aamal Company, also from Qatar, in second place. UAE real estate group Emaar remained on its position as third best corporate website.

According to Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain CEO and MD, Abdul Hakim Al-Khayyat, Islamic banking has many advantages and capabilities that are giving it permission to play an important role in solving many economic problems in the GCC.
Al-Khayyat underlined the fact that Islamic banking is not operating at full swing yet, either as a result of lack of legislations or opportunities. Furthermore, he notified that governments need to launch more Sukuk, so they can provide short-term liquidity instruments.
However, since legislations that organise the issuance of Sukuk in some countries don't exist, this significant instrument has been presented as extinct, which consumes the efforts of Islamic banks to help markets overcome their crises.

South Africa welcomed banks to submit proposals by Dec. 21 for the sale of its first Islamic bond as the continent’s biggest economy seeks to enlarge the access to financing.
It seems that South Africa is a relatively low-risk debtor, which would make its sukuk bonds attractive for Islamic investors searching to mix their portfolios outside the Middle East and North Africa region.
Islamic bonds will also help diversify the government’s funding and investor base.

According to the chairman of Kuwait Finance House in Turkey, Mr. Mohammed Al-Omar, the bank plans to go on with its pivotal role in the Turkish market, in addition to binding its strategy that is based on strengthening economic relations with neighboring countries, and with Kuwait and other GCC countries.
He added that the bank also wants to further offer Islamic products and instruments that can enlarge the horizon of Islamic banking in the Turkish economy, such as sukuk, murabaha, and ijarah. He underlined the fact that the bank presented products that never existed before in the Turkish market, such as the gold account and sukuk.

Economist and academic researcher Dr Nasser al Mawali forsees that Islamic banks will need about 20% of the domestic market of the banking sector in the Sultanate during the next three years.
He indicated that the presence of Islamic and traditional banks in the domestic market promotes competition among them and helps in finding alternatives and multiple options of financing and customer service especially for small businesses that have poor funding.
Dr Al Mawali added that the presence of Islamic banks in the Sultanate is a promising opportunity for the growing Omani economy.

South Africa’s international liquidity position declined more than expected in November as gross reserves decreased on a stronger dollar against major currencies, causing a descent in foreign currency reserves.
The SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) stated that net gold and foreign exchange reserves dropped to $48.633bn in November from $49.221bn in October, also as the forward position of the bank declines.
Analysts don’t think the bank was actively accumulating reserves in November as that would raise the volatility of the rand.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd is noticing opportunities for expansion in Indonesia and Bangladesh, which have sizeable Muslim populations and adequate Islamic banking regulatory policy and supporting infrastructure in place to speed up Shariah-based financing and banking operations.
Managing Director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat stated that although the two countries have been recognized as "very interesting countries" that fit into the bank's expansion plan, such plans would have to take into consideration the current global economic situation and its effect in this region.

It seems that things will have a positive outlook for Yemen’s Islamic banks.
When pitched battles between pro- and anti-Saleh forces erupted in downtown Sana’a, the banking sector froze.
Tadhamon International Islamic Bank and the Islamic Bank of Yemen for Finance and Investment have still 80% of the banking sector’s activities paralyzed.
The GCC deal is centered on rebuilding the country, which has been crippled by 10 months of unrest.

A Master’s of Management Finance degree program will be opened this coming spring at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business from Dubai.
The program will mainly focus on conventional finance.

Real Economy Partners (REP) is going to launch the world’s first Francophone Islamic finance resource by the name of the French Islamic Finance Review. The new service has the purpose to circulate academic research on Islamic finance in partnership with Paris’s Collège de Sorbonne in French, English, Arabic and Turkish.
FIFR will also help the development of Islamic finance not only in France, but in the French-speaking world, with special emphasis in the Maghreb and French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.
FIFR also wants to help advance the initiatives of French banks in the Islamic finance sector and will publish articles and news in four languages throughout the Francophone world.

Ahmad Mohamed Ali, the president of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), has given notice that the euro zone sovereign debt crisis is adversely affecting the Bank's member countries and urged European leaders to find the right solutions and not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
He explained at the "Islamic Finance on the 21st Century" symposium which was held in Madrid on Dec. 1 that Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are very much affected as exports begin to decline because of the credit crunch and economic situation in the European Union (EU).

Thomson Reuters PORTIA was chosen by Tawuniya.
PORTIA will offer Tawuniya a global solution to manage, analyze and report on their broad, multi-currency investment portfolio, mitigating risk and improving investment operations.
Thomson Reuters global managing director of PORTIA Christy Bremner stated that as the Middle East insurance market continues to grow, firms will ask for automated solutions that are both Shariah-compliant and meet global accounting requirements.

Although UM Financial Inc went into receivership back in October, the consequences of the bankruptcy are beginning to be noticed only now.
Besides the fact that the case risk is giving a bad name to sharia-compliant finance in North America, it also poses a series of legal hurdles that could have as a result to mortgage holders the losing of their homes.
Since the use of interest is forbidden in Islam, sharia-compliant mortgages are organized so that lender and homebuyer share the costs of purchasing a home. Instead of paying interest, homeowners preffer to rent the property from the lender while gradually purchasing the outstanding share of their house.

Industry experts will share their wide spectrum of expertise at the upcoming Kuala Lumpur Conference on Islamic Wealth Management 2011.
The two-day conference will start on December 20 and will be arranged by Kuala Lumpur-based Alfalah Consulting.
The conference will discuss key principles and avenues of Islamic wealth management, including Islamic wealth creation, accumulation, protection, distribution and purification in the wealth management cycle.

The contribution of a membership fee of N875 million to the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a founding member, is raising suspicions about the apex bank’s resolve on accountability and transparency in it’s operations.
It seems that there are complaints by worried Nigerians that the CBN was forcefully gathering the country into the membership of the Corporation, a supranational entity, organized to float financial instruments to facilitate liquidity management.

A new set of rules and regulations for Islamic banks will be ready until the end of this month.
Ernst & Young was appointed in September to advise the apex bank on formulating a separate set of rules for Islamic banking in the country.
Ernst & Young is analyzing aspects like fixing of lending limits, single borrower limit, writing of rule books, procedures for reporting structure for Islamic banks and formation of Sharia board.

Barwa Bank has oficially announced that subscription applications have been mailed to all share holders. Subscription will start on December 6 and close on December 29, 2011.
The bank is presenting six shares for every ten shares held. The new shares are given at QR16 per share, which includes the nominal value of QR10 and a premium of QR 6.
Following documents must be attached to the application form:
- Individuals: ID card
- Minors: ID card or birth certificate stating the national number in addition to the ID card of the parent or legal custodian
- Corporates: a recent copy of the Commercial Registration, ID copy of the authorised signatory and an authorisation letter from the company

A new Shari'ah-compliant fund from Sambacapital will aim long-term capital growth through investment in global Shari’ah-compliant equities that assume their primary revenues from the production and distribution of basic commodities.
Al Nafees Global Commodities Equity Fund from Sambacapital is managed in compliance with the Investment Funds Regulations issued by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
The fund will invest in stocks of global companies connected to the commodities sector that are forseen to benefit from growing global demand for basic commodities.