IslamicFinance.de

It seems that the Islamic capital market will maintain its growth momentum over the next decade. Its next phase of growth will be differentiated primarily by greater internationalization, which will help address some of the challenges faced by the industry and will offer Malaysia the opportunity to strengthen its position as a hub for Islamic capital market activities. This is the foresight of the Securities Commission of Malaysia, the securities regulator.
Greater internationalization of Islamic capital market will present itself in a number of key areas including product and service development; the provision of legal, Shariah and other advisory and intermediation services; a movement toward Shariah-based products as opposed to Shariah-compliant products; the channeling of savings into investments that create real businesses and jobs; and greater product distribution channels across borders and jurisdictions.

The Equator Principles Association has started assembling its second major revision to the eponymous guidelines for managing environmental and social risks in project finance.
The association held its largest annual meeting last month, with almost 100 people attending, where options for revising the principles were presented. The review follows a revision to the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards and an independent report published earlier this year.
Some of the key issues include extending the scope beyond project finance, and improving disclosure and governance.

The American University of Beirut (AUB) held a seminar on the evening of October 31, 2011 to initiate the Rami Fouad Makhzoumi Chair in Corporate Governance in the Olayan School of Business.
The Rami Fouad Makhzoumi Chair was awarded by Fouad Makhzoumi and his wife, May Naamani, in memory of their son, Rami Makhzoumi, who died at the age of 33 in April, 2011, and, as an entrepreneur in the business world, was known for having prioritized ethics, such as accountability and governance, in his work.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'A' issue rating to the proposed sukuk trust certificates to be launched late November, subject to investor demand, by ADCB Islamic Finance (Cayman) Limited, a special purpose company (SPC) of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB; A/Stable/A-1).
The rating on the five-year US$750 million trust certificates shows ADCB's irrevocable undertaking to purchase the assets held by the issuer at the redemption date of the sukuk.
ADCB has implied that the aim of this sukuk is to enable it to raise funds in accordance with Sharia law, and use them for general funding purposes.

ADIB Sukuk Company Ltd. announced that an updated base prospectus relating to its U.S.$ 5,000,000,000 Trust Certificate Issuance Programme (the "Base Prospectus") has been approved by the UK Listing Authority and will shortly be available for viewing on the website of the National Storage Mechanism operated by the UKLA.
The updated Base Prospectus can be found under the following link:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9868R_-2011-11-11.pdf

Fitch Ratings has assigned Asya Katilim Bankasi A.S.'s (Asya) forthcoming sukuk issue a 'B+(exp)' expected rating, the expected rating being in line with Asya's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR).
According to the draft prospectus, a Cayman-based special purpose company (SPV) will launch certificates (or sukuk) and use the proceeds to buy from Asya, a portfolio of assets, and any subsequent replacing assets, consisting of obligations owed by Asya's customers. All assets will consist of interest-free finance transactions, taking the form of murabaha or lease financing.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), and Kolon Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for jointly establishing Islamic leasing (ijara) companies to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 57-member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The MoU was signed by ICD's CEO and General Manager Khaled Al-Aboodi and Kolon's CEO and President Kim Nam-soo.
The MoU arranges the establishment of a platform for mutual collaboration on market studies related to the leasing industry in countries where the project is to be initiated.

Experts stated that corporate governance reform efforts by Middle East firms should start at board level. Regional and international speakers focused on director independence and responsibilities, as well as board diversity.
Nasser Saidi, chief economist at the Dubai International Financial Centre and executive director of the Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance, warned that only a minority of regional firms had gone forward to ingrain corporate governance into the culture of their companies, despite having put in place better guidelines and controls.

Crescent Wealth launched the first Islamic Australian equity fund, the Crescent Australian Equity Fund (CAEF) on October 6 and the firm is now searching to partner with Malaysian institutions seeking exposure to Australian markets.
Talal Yassine, Crescent Wealth Founder and Managing Director, stated that Crescent Wealth is inventing the significant growth opportunity for our industry to become a leading hub for Islamic investing, particularly in their own region where 62 per cent of the world's Muslims reside.

While Pak-Qatar does recruit from all types of secular educational institutions, it also makes it a point to guarantee that religious seminary students are not left out from its recruitment drives.
Pak-Qatar is nowadays one of the smaller life insurance companies in Pakistan, whith just over Rs1 billion in assets, but the company plans on expanding rapidly across the country and having its own retail sales force is a key part of its strategy.

This is the first Turkish Sukuk under the new Sukuk regulations presented by the Capital Markets Board in Turkey to facilitate Turkish Sukuk issuance.
The joint lead managers were HSBC, Standard Chartered, Liquidity Management House, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Commerzbank, and HSBC was seen as certificateholders’ representative on the issue of a $350 million (EUR 247 million) five-year Sukuk by Turkish participation bank Kuveyt Türk Kat?l?m Bankasi.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) will hold investor meetings for a potential dollar-denominated Islamic bond, or Sukuk.
Meetings will begin in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 17, and will cover Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), before ending in London on Nov. 21.

The World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report 2011/12, expanded in collaboration with Ernst & Young, will be officially launched on November 22 at a top Islamic banking forum in Bahrain.
The 18th annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2011) will take place from November 21 to 23 at the Gulf Convention Centre.
More than 1,200 industry leaders from over 50 countries are forseen to cone at WIBC 2011.

After only a month since the UK court lifted a $9.2 billion freeze on the assets of Maan Al Sanea, the legal battle between Saudi Arabia’s Algosaibis and Maan Al Sanea seems to be heating up once again.
Al Sanea, facing criminal and civil proceedings relating to billions of dollars allegedly defrauded from his wife’s family the Algosaibis, won a big break after the Cayman and UK courts lifted a freeze against his assets.
But a few days ago the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands granted a default judgement in favour of plaintiff Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers (AHAB) in a case filed by the Algosaibis against Saad Investments Co. and Al Sanea, among others.
The court, through the order filed on November 7, 2011, “adjudged that the Plaintiff [AHAB] do have judgment against the 2nd defendant [Al Sanea] for damages for conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty to be assessed together with such costs to be taxed if not agreed.”

The 2012 budget with the theme "National Transformation Policy, Welfare for the Rakyat, Well Being of the Nation" was delivered in October 2011 by Malaysian Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak to the Dewan Rakyat (National Assembly).
Judging by the previous election, the next one will be just as tense.
Prime Minister Najib being one of the most proactive supporters of the Islamic finance industry in the Islamic finance space, the provisions announced in the 2012 budget are part of a continuum of a strategy to improve the role of Kuala Lumpur as a major international hub for Islamic finance and especially an origination center for cross-border sukuk, as opposed to electoral opportunism.

Ahmet Faruk Aysan and Sabri Orman, a specialist in Islamic economics, were elected by Turkey’s central bank as members to the bank’s board.
The board is formed from the governor and six members and makes decisions on monetary policy and sets forth regulations.

Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL) has planned to open 25 new branches in various cities of Pakistan by next year.
Junaid Ahmed, President and CEO DIBPL, stated that since starting operation in Pakistan in 2006, the bank has 72 branches. He added that under its consumer banking division, the bank is offering state-of-the-art Sharia compliant products that effectively compete with those being provided in the market by conventional banks.

It appears that the trade financing arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has offered $400 million to help Egypt finance imports of petroleum products, wheat and other foodstuffs.
The funds were given by IDB's International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation.

It seems that Islamic Agricultural and Rural Finance can bring the genuine green revolution to an economy. As Islamic Finance has made a lot of progressive research in Agricultural finance bringing a number of pragmatic and useful choices which if enabled can bring revolutionary development to the economy.
Muhammad Zubair Mughal Chief Executive Offier, AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics(CIBE), also explained the objectives of a specialized training workshop on Islamic Agricultural and Rural Finance being organized by AlHuda-CIBE on 28th & 29th November 2011 in Islamabad.

Noor Islamic Bank has been assigned to arrange and lead manage more than US $1.4 billion Islamic finance capital market deals in Turkey in the last 18 months, making it the most active UAE bank in the republic.
Noor revealed details of its financial dealings in Turkey on the eve of the Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, planed to take place in the Turkish capital Istanbul, from October 24-27.
During the four-day Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, leading regional and international Islamic finance experts will debate a range of key topics for the Islamic finance industry including how to revive the global sukuk markets,following the financial crisis; kick starting sukuk markets in frontier economies; new business opportunities for Islamic syndicated finance and the future of Participation (Islamic) banking in Turkey.