IslamicFinance.de

Suresh R I Perera, Principal – Tax and Regulatory, KPMG Ford, Rhodes, Thornton & Co stated that there were many milestones achieved towards Islamic Banking in Sri Lanka. The statement was given at 3rd Sri Lanka Islamic Banking and Finance Conference which was held in Colombo.
Faizel Salieh, Managing Director/CEO , Amana Bank Ltd , added that if they are to build the right attitude of Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) in Sri Lanka there should be right behaviour in the whole financial market and the quality dimension over the quantity dimension and a high level of conviction is also important.

Capital Management House stated that it has performed the second distribution of dividends to GCC investors of its aircraft leasing investment fund for the period ending 30 June 2011.
The dividends are paid on a quarterly basis and have been calculated at 10% per annum. They a number of high net worth individuals, family offices and institutions from across the region.
The fund has been coordinated around a transaction concluded with Emirates Airlines, one of the world's leading carriers, which was announced in January 2011 and consists of the acquisition of a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft from the airline and an agreement whereby it has been rented back to Emirates.

Shariah loans increased by almost half in the first six months of the year. The reason was the rapid expansion of Shariah banks in Indonesia.
Mulya Siregar, director of Shariah banking at Bank Indonesia, stated that Shariah loans rose 49 percent to Rp 83 trillion ($9.8 billion) through June, in comparison with the same period last year.

BankMuscat lead a series of customised Islamic banking courses. The learning and development solutions for staff is as part of the bank’s commitment to launch Islamic banking products and services in accordance with the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.
The bank produced the courses so that they provide general awareness modules that imparted broad-based knowledge and skills of the Islamic finance principles, which are derived from the Holy Quran.

A case against two Muslim businessmen was brought in the high court of London earlier this year. The dispute was about an arbitration process relating to a contract between the two parties. The one businessman objected to his counterpart nominating a non-Muslim arbitrator stressing that under Islamic law the arbitrator must be Muslim.
Normally arbitration regards an alternative dispute resolution to costly litigation. However in the above case, the dispute was over the arbitration process itself.

BMI Bank has paid out a three-year Islamic term loan worth $93.7m on its programmed due date.
Jamal Al-Hazeem, the Chief Executive Officer of BMI, stated that the repayment of the facility on time, without having to refinance or rollover, is demonstrated through continuing priority on maintaining a healthy liquidity position in order to fulfill our commitments to customers.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between HSBC and International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) that implies providing help on various treasury activities such as joint trade financing and investment of liquidity and facilitating trade. This also means that ITFC customers will be able to use HSBC’s services to facilitate the issuance of Letters of Credit on behalf of ITFC for customers who import or export goods.
ITFC is also awaited to invest its liquidity in Shari’ah-compliant investment assets such as HSBC’s 'Overnight Commodity Murabaha Investment' product.

Dear All,

as salamu alaikum wa Ramadan Karim,

May I kindly ask you to consider signing a petition against hunger, which has already more than 3 million signatories:

www.1billionhungry.org/gassner/

The rational behind it is explained on the website with materials, actions and videos; it is a joint initiative of various organisations and inshallah it will help to support the cause.

Let our fasting also lead to feel with those who do not have to eat at Iftar, let us sign all this petition right away and share it with friends.

Wa at taufiq min Allah,

Best regards,

Michael Saleh Gassner

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Amrahbank OJSC and Turkapital Holding CJSC in order to set up a cooperative working partnership in areas of common interest.
The bank states that the objective of this agreement is to encourage cooperation between the parties in the areas of direct investment opportunities in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Fawaz Al-Issa, chief executive officer of Turkapital and Emil Mammadov, chief executive officer of Amrahbank signed the agreement.

Islamic loans from Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell to a five-year low with banks reluctant to borrow amid concerns Europe's budget crisis will roil markets as Arabian Gulf borrowers restructure debts.
Since 2007, Islamic loan issuance has slowly dropped. The main reasons are the threat of sovereign defaults in Europe and the faltering global economic recovery deter lending.
Saad Group and Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co, both based in the Saudi Arabian oil-producing city of Al Khobar, are reorganizing debt. The two companies failed in 2009 after borrowing a total of $15.7 billion (Dh57.6 billion) from more than 80 banks, including HSBC and Credit Agricole SA.

Alinma Bank has launched a new financing services, through whichclients are given free promotional gifts with the first personal financing (real estate, car or share financing) deal they complete with the bank.

Fahad Al-Semari, Alinma’s GM for retail banking, said the bank would offer a wide range of valuable gifts including BMW cars, electrical appliances (televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.) as well as the Mobily Limited service.

Gulf Investment Corporation GSC, Kuwait (“GIC”) launched on 3 August 2011 MYR750 million (USD253 million) under its existing 20year MYR3.5 billion (USD1.18 billion) Sukuk Wakalah bi Istithmar Medium Term Notes Programme (the “GIC Sukuk”).
The GIC Sukuk will authorize GIC to tap the Malaysian capital markets for long-dated funding and boost its asset-liability management, thereby mitigating and interest rate risks.

Nakheel announced that its planned Islamic bond has been delayed because of administrative reasons.
The developer overstretched itself with projects such as islands in the shape of palms. That is why the $1.63bn Islamic bond had been slated to issue.
Nakheel stated that it will launch the sukuk as soon as it will proove itself to be practical.

Dawood Islamic Bank has a new name since 11 July 2011: Burj Bank. With the new image, the bank is trying to leave behind all the turbulents.
The banks new purpose is to be among the top 10 banks in Pakistan within a decade. The bank is planning to launch Shari’ah-compliant consumer products.

The Indonesian Ministry of Finance had the target to sell 45.5 trillion, but sold only IDR 15.76 trillion of debt in Q3 auctions in the third quarter.
Raising IDR 810 billion ($95.7 million) in a Sukuk auction on 2 August, it misses its IDR 1 trillion target.

Dow Jones Indexes will launch the Dow Jones Islamic Market RBP U.S. 50 Index, a unique gauge designed to evaluate the largest 50 U.S. stocks ranked by RBP®(Required Business Performance) probabilities supplied by Transparent Value, LLC that have first passed the screens for Shari’ah compliance.
Transparent Value is calculating RBP® by taking a reverse discounted cash flow approach to determine the future business performance required by a company to support its current stock price.

Because of the financial and political uncertainty in the region, Noor Islamic Bank does not expect the Islamic bond market to ameliorate for another three years.
Hussain Al Qemzi stated that three years from now the sukuk will come back stronger.
Some companies like Sharjah Islamic Bank and HSBC Middle East were oversubscribed, therefor there was some hope that sukuk will torn around.

Gulf Investment Corp GSC, Kuwait (GIC) launched RM750mil (US$253mil) under its existing 20-year RM3.5bil (US$1.18bil) sukuk wakalah bi istithmar medium term notes programme (GIC sukuk).
This is the second issuance from the GIC sukuk and the fourth issuance from GIC in Malaysia since 2008.
The GIC sukuk has been accredited a long term rating of AAA by RAM Rating Services Bhd. This second issuance from the GIC sukuk in 2011 has a tenure of 5 years and has a semi-annual profit payment of 4.9% per annum.

First Gulf Bank PJSC, (FGB), obtained excellent investor endorsement through a six times oversubscription of its $650 million Sukuk (Islamic bonds) issuance.
The FGB Sukuk roadshow started on 21st July 2011. Between the ones invited were Fixed Income investors from the UAE, Asia and Europe.

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) finished the GCC's first ever Islamic equivalent of the conventional Repo product, a collateralized Murabaha transaction, opening the gateway to an alternative method of liquidity management in the Islamic banking sector.
NBAD and ADIB jointly starting on this initiative to formalise the Master Collateralised Murabaha Agreement (MCMA), therefor enabling Islamic banks to utilise their holdings of sukuk.