IslamicFinance.de

The Islamic Finance Talent Development Program (IFTDP) is a talent development program with the sole objective of building a pool of highly talented young Islamic Finance executives who are capable of leading the Islamic Finance Industry in the future.

The program is for 2 years and it provides the participants with on-the-job experience and exposure to the different aspects of Islamic Finance, upon which they are to build a career in Islamic finance.

It is anticipated that the bank will improve its bottom line by 38.7% in 3Q11 to TRY 42mn. It is also expacted a 5% quarterly growth in total loans.
On the other side, the bank raised USD 100mn Murabaha syndication in the quarter, and an additional US$ 150mn in wakala from the Gulf region.
A slowdown for Albaraka Turk in 3Q11 in terms of NPL additions which should also contribute positively to provisioning expenses is also forseen.

National Bonds Corporation PJSC celebrated World Savings Day, which falls on Monday October 31, with a host of activities with the purpose at engaging the public and spreading awareness on the importance of savings.
The popular scheme held awareness sessions at universities across Dubai to commemorate the day and also set up a charity football tournament. The places where the awareness sessions were held are: Dubai Knowledge Village, Zayed University and Dubai International Academy.

Elaf Bank B.S.C. and Ohad Trust B.S.C. have formed a joint venture in Labuan, the result being the fact that Labuan Financial Services Authorities (LFSA) has granted a "trust" licence under Ohad Trust (Labuan) Bhd (Ohad Labuan).
the licence will give permission to Ohad Labuan to work on trust, foundations, fund administration, registrar and custody assignments in Malaysia.

A study conducted by National Commercial Bank (NCB) showes that Gulf Cooperation Council member countries launched bonds worth around $20.9 billion in the first nine months of 2011, slightly lower than their value in the same period of 2010.
It added that even though the general mood of the sukuk market has turned very positive, new mainstream primary activity (closed issuances) in the Gulf was still restricted to four corporate issuances with an aggregate value of just under $1.6 billion, not an impressive figure by historical standards but more than 10 times the total conventional issuance seen during the quarter.

Because of the recent global financial crises appetite for Islamic Private Equity has surfaced.
Joined by over 50 expert regional and global speakers, Ihab Asali, QFIB Head of Private Equity embraces the global rise of Islamic Private Equity at the recently concluded Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Ihab along with other panellists discussed and investigated the potential of Islamic Private Equity after the economic downturn, ways to increase Islamic funds and its impact on the Private Equity market and where quality Islamic Private Equity opportunities are likely to come out.

Hamood Sangour Al-Zadjali, the country's central bank head, stated that Oman may in future consider launching sukuk. He added that inflation in Oman was stable and would be around four percent this year.
Oman accepted Islamic banking in May this year, after previously deciding not to introduce it.

Libya’s central bank is arranging a law to give permission to lenders and issuers to sell Islamic bonds as part of its efforts to evolve banking services after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, an Islamic jurist and former justice minister who heads the ruling National Transitional Council, stated that Libya’s banking industry will be made Shariah-compliant.
Bloomberg shows that global sales of sukuk climbed to $18.9 billion in 2011, compared with $13.5 billion in the same period last year.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has hired an Allen & Overy lawyer as its first-ever global head of Islamic finance.
Tarek El-Assra is the new counsel in the firm’s Dubai office.
The appointment comes after the news less than a month ago that partner Pervez Akhtar, hired from A&O in December, had been promoted to the role of regional managing partner for the Middle East and North Africa.

Global sales of Islamic bonds were almost double in October as progress toward a resolution to Europe’s debt crisis helps push yields to a one-month low.
Khazanah Nasional Bhd., a Malaysian state-owned investment company, Kuala Lumpur-based Property Holdings Bhd. and Turkish Islamic bank Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS have sold global bonds that fulfill Islam’s ban on interest this month.

SHAMROCK Conferences International has announced that the 5th Annual Pakistan Micro-finance Country Forum 2011 is going to be held on 24th of November, 2011 in Karachi.
The theme of the forum is named “Stretching out to the unreached” and will contain case-study discussions and face-to-face deliberations.

Three banks from UAE are among 10 largest Arab Islamic banks.
Saudi Arabia’s Al-Rajhi group remained at the same position as the world’s largest Islamic bank at the end of 2010 while four in the UAE were among the 10 top Shariah-compliant banks.
The Kuwait Finance House (KFH) was second by assets, which stood at $43.7 billion at the end of 2010 compared with $39 billion at the end of 2009.
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) was ranked third, with assets of about $24.5 billion, followed by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), with around $20.5 billion.

Islamic financial institutions such as banks, insurance and property development should play an active role in finding ways on how waqaf, zakat and sadaqah could be exploited as intruments in the economic transformation of the Muslim ummah.
Sultan of Kedah Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah gave a statement at the three-day conference themed 'Islamic Banking and Finance: Waqaf, Zakat and Sadakah As Community Empowerment And Strategies For The Economic Transformation Of The Ummah'.

The profit for Jordan Islamic bank ( JIB) for ninth months ending on 30 /9/2011 reached about JD21.1m ($29.8m) compared to about JD20.7m ($29.2m) for the same period in the last year with an increase by 2%.
Fitch Ratings set the bank's credit rating at BB- with stable outlook which asserts the bank's strength , its intrinsic consistency, its strong Islamic banking franchise in Jordan especially in the retail segment, sound core profitability, stable funding base, strong liquidity and good level of risk management systems.

It seems that the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) set an agreement with a German agency, GIZ, to conduct a study of micro and Takaful (Islamic) insurance products in Nigeria. The statement came from Mr. Fola Daniel, NAICOM Commissioner for Insurance.
He added that the gesture is part of NAICOM’s drive to open up and expand insurance market at the grassroots and that this was also a way to increase the sector’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) will need Islamic financial institutions to switch to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), but with additional disclosure requirements unique to sharia-compliant firms.
It appears that the regulator is determined to move away from the standards set by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) to those mandated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) latest $75 million line of financing to Turkiye Finans Participation Bank emphasizes the proactive involvement of the multilateral development bank of the Muslim world in Turkey over the last three decades.
The financing facility is part of the IDB Group's Member Country Partnership Strategy (MCPS) program for Turkey which was launched in 2010 and which includes the period 2010-2013 and beholds a total financing envelope of $2 billion from IDB Group to Turkey.

The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Export Credits and Investment (ICIEC) is still taking into consideration the idea of a third party sukuk guarantee fund.
However, Abdel Rahman Taha, the chief executive officer of ICIEC, states that the corporation has began to work internally to design a new sukuk policy which can be presented as a means to improve the credit structure and appeal of sukuk. It is expected that this new policy will be able to provide the much needed pause to the sukuk market.

It appears that Tenaga Nasional Bhd. (TNB) sold 4.85 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) of Islamic bonds maturing in five to 20 years at yields between 3.80 % and 4.90 %.
The sukuk was sold in 16 portions and was priced at the lower end of the initial yield guidance.

Indonesia's parliament authorized a long-delayed bill designing a new regulator to oversee a growing financial industry in Southeast Asia's largest economy but faced general skepticism on how effective the watchdog would be.
The new regulator, OJK or Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, will take over the supervision of banks, brokerages and insurance firms from the central bank and capital market watchdog Bapepam-LK begining with 2013.
The move to create the body came about to escape a repeat of the 1997/98 financial crisis, during which many Indonesians banks collapsed or were shut.