IslamicFinance.de

Dawood Islamic Bank has anticipated the new identity of Burj Bank to “Burj Bank Limited” with effect from July 11, 2011.
It seems that the reasons for the change of identity of Dawood Islamic Bank is the change of the profile of the investors due to fresh investment from Middle East constituting almost 85 percent ownership going to Middle East Investor.

Waqf Fund will launch the Diploma in Islamic Commercial Jurisprudence aimed primarily at those working for Internal Shari’a Review departments of Islamic Financial Institutions. The program is being offered with the assistance of BIBF.
Khalid Hamad, Chairman of the Waqf Fund, revealed that the programm will have seven modules. The seven modules include: (1) The Theory of Contracts and its Legal Maxims (2) Objectives of Shari’a and Usul Al Fiqh (3) Principles of Fatwa and Applied Jurisprudence (4) Islamic Financial Transactions (5) Fiqh of Zakat and Waqf (6) Fiqh of Takaful (7) Shari’a Auditing and Compliance for IFIs.

THE Omani government has embraced its doors to Islamic banking.
At the end of May, the Central Bank of Oman (CBO)’s board of governors had agreed upon the legislation for the establishment of sharia-compliant institutions and Islamic branches in conventional banks. The CBO also approved afterwards the creation of Bank Nizwa, which will be the first Islamic institution operating in the Sultanate.

Five foreign investors and other 3 from Indonesia expressed obvious interest in purchasing 50 percent shares of Bank Muamalat.
The five foreign investors are: Standard Chartered Plc., Qatar Islamic bank SAQ, Oversea Chinese Banking, OCBC Overseas and ING Baring Bank.

Al Baraka Banking Group has signed an agreement for a Murabaha facility of $20 million to finance foreign trade with the International Islamic Trade Finance.
Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Board Member and President & Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group, undelines the fact that this agreement comes within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the International Islamic Trade Finance at the beginning of the year, and this agreement is one of the fruitful results of this Memorandum.

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has launched the revised Private Debt Securities (PDS) Guidelines, Sukuk Guidelines and Trust Deed Guidelines to deepen the regulatory framework for fundraising and product regulation in the Private Debt Securities and Sukuk markets.
The revised Sukuk Guidelines supply greater clarity on the application of Shari’ah principles endorsed by the SC's Shariah Advisory Council in relation to Sukuk transactions while the Trust Deed Guidelines improves disclosure standards and protection for corporate bond and Sukuk holders.

Cagamas Berhad (Cagamas) revealed the launch of 1, 2 and 3 year Cagamas Sukuk Commodity Murabahah amounting to RM1 billion.
The sukuk are unsecured obligations of the Company.

DinarStandard™ publicized a listing of 50 Leading Business Schools of the OIC member countries. The listing reveales how OIC based Business Schools are giving leading regional employers access to top talent from within their own neighborhoods with unique expertise in Islamic finance, social entrepreneurship and innovation management.
Some of the insights presented in the listing are:
- Accreditation: Eight B-Schools from the list are AACSB accredited (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.) AACSB is generally regarded as the standard for MBA programs (all US top 20 MBA programs have AACSB accreditation.)
- Geographic breakdown: B-Schools from 16 countries are represented on the list. Malaysia has the highest representation with 8 B-Schools on the list. This is followed by 6 each from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
- Most of the programs are English language based and 47 of the 50 on the list offer full-time MBA program.

The 2nd edition of International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) Sukuk Report was issued in Labuan with purpose at meeting the need of players in the global (domestic and international) Sukuk market by providing them with useful information on the latest developments of Sukuk in terms of type, geography and structure.
The report with the strong supports from the various international financial bodies particularly in Malaysia includes information and relevant details of Sukuk issuances during the time period of January 2001 – December 2010.

Fitch Ratings has given DP World Sukuk's existing $1.5 billion Sukuk issue of senior unsecured trust certificates a final long-term senior unsecured 'BBB-' rating. The certificates were launched on 2 July 2007 and are due in 2017. DP World acts as the obligor of the Sukuk certificates.
Moreover, DP World is possible to supplement any shortfall in the returns generated by the underlying assets in order to make periodic payments in full.

It is possible that Emaar Properties’s sukuk will extend rally after the UAE relaxed visa rules for homebuyers in order to attract investment to the Middle East’s worst-performing property market.
The federal government agreed to lengthen the visa period to three years from six months, like it was until now. About 85 percent of the UAE’s population are foreign nationals and require visas to live and work in the country and that makes this great news.

Al Baraka Bank Egypt expects its sale to raise the sale of 10-year Islamic bonds this summer until EGP1bn ($168m). this was reported by Bloomberg. The bank will use the funds to help restructure liabilities" and to finance "growth plans".

A report revealed by Accenture and the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthrop says that companies should develop their philanthropy with the same approach they use to developing their business, through a strategy known as "sustainable value creation".
This will need finding "new, scalable sources of competitive advantage that generate measureable profit and community benefit".

The Central Bank of Nigeria launched on 21st June 2011 new guidelines for the regulation and supervision of institutions offering non-interest financial services in Nigeria.
It seems that these guidelines are issued pursuant to the non- interest banking regime.
Moreover, the guideline makes sure that there shall be compliance with prescribed Audit, Accounting and Disclosure Requirement such as the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB) and that where there is a conflict between the local and international standards, the provisions of the local standards issued by NASB shall apply to the extent of the inconsistency.

Amjaad Development and London based Edbiz Consulting are collaborators on Oman’s first Islamic finance conference that is going to be held in December 2011.
Khalid Al Yahmadi has the strong oppinion that Islamic finance is desired by the majority of Omanis and that together with government support, it have a rapid growth.

Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK) makes plans to raise $200 million with a murabaha Islamic syndicated loan.
The Shariah-compliant lender wants to hire banks by the end of next week.

Beginning with 2002, Jaiz has become synonyms with non interest banking in Nigeria. But it seems that Jaiz is not the first institution that was proposed as Islamic Bank before it there were many attempts, starting with WAPA (West African Pilgrimage Agency) of the colonial era.
Since that CBN directive little was heard about Jaiz, the few moves made by it organizers to raise the new minimum capital are never completed, this included looking for foreign investors and multilateral corporations to come and invest in the Bank.

Islamic finance is playing each day goes by an even more important role in today’s global financial village.
Operators of Islamic banking disputed tha fact that Islamic banking cannot be fully Sharia based unless there is Takaful to take care of their insurance businesses.
Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, stated that Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world with a population of about 150 million, boasts of a significant Muslim population, majority of whom yearn for such financial services.

A Belgian academic and economist launched last December a project called Islamic Finance Lawyers (IsFin) that is based on macro-economic observations that money today is mainly in the hands of Islamic financing investors.
Asked how he came up with the idea of Islamic finance the Belgian academic answered that he had specific interest in the subject and he did a one-year course on Islamic finance. He added that Islamic finance is new to the western world and is moving very fast.

Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) declared the successful closing of its first publicly listed sukuk of SR1.8 billion which was upsized from the initial base case of SR1.5 billion due to the strong demand shown by interested investors.
A large number of investors showed interest in the Sipchem sukuk with total orders received in the range of SR4.5 billion. Investors interested in the program included government institutions, insurance companies, investment and money market funds, financial institutions and individuals.