IslamicFinance.de

Because of the high consumer loans and outstanding credit card bills, Turkey’s leading bankers have pointed out that people should be more careful when spending their money.
Data show that consumer loans alone rose 42 % in 2010, while credit card debt grew 24 %.
Taking Turkey’s large youth population and strong economic growth in consideration, Hüseyin Ayd?n, Turkish Banks Association (TBB) chairman and Ziraat Bank head, said it is normal to see a rise in consumer spending in a stable economy.

G Capital in partnership with Gürmen Group, has acquired Adabank in Turkey for US$ 75 million. Gulf Finance House (GFH), G Capital’s parent company, has a long track record in establishing and operating financial institutions across the MENA region, institutions like: Arab Finance House (Lebanon 2003), Solidarity (Bahrain – 2004), First Leasing Bank (Bahrain - 2004), Khaleeji Commercial Bank (Bahrain - 2005), Asian Finance Bank (Malaysia - 2006), Qinvest (Qatar - 2006) and First Energy Bank (Bahrain -2008).

Ernst & Young's experts stated at the International Takaful Summit 2011 in London that Takaful is only one per cent of total global insurance market but Muslims are 20 per cent of the world's population.
Abid Shakeel is the one that spoke at on 'Takaful - the default option for Muslim countries' at the summit. He underlined the fact that the legislation in the Islamic countries that makes Takaful products the preferred choice among insurance products can place the industry on a completely different level. He added the fact that growth in the GCC is primarily driven by compulsory insurance rather than only voluntary policies.

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.

More than 500 capital management companies and investment funds that are signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) will be required to disclose information about their investment decisions, under a revision of the PRI rules.

The PRI is backed by the UN Environment Programme and the Global Compact, and has signatories from 45 countries with more than $25tn of assets under management.

The CEO of Kuwait Finance House-Turkey, Ufuk iwan, emphasized that the Islamic banking industry has reinforced its competitiveness during the economic crisis, and that Islamic banks weren't so vulnerable any more in front of the impact of the crisis that their traditional counterparts, since they deal in real products instead of relying on offering loans.
He added that by the end of 2010, Islamic banking assets reached 83 % of total Islamic assets in general, followed by sukuk 11 % and Islamic funds 4.6 %.

Earlier this year, the Istanbul Stock Exchange issued an index of Sharia compliant banks and companies. That attracted the media very much.
It has been made clear that these banks do not charge interest, or “riba”, because it is forbidden according to Islamic law. The way that these banks operate remains unknown.
Four participation banks are currently operational in Turkey: al Baraka, Bank Asya, Kuveyt Türk, and Türkiye Finans. These banks offer a wide range of services, including savings and checking accounts, house and automobile financing, and even Islamic bonds.

Because of the strict rules of Islamic finance, many countries have avoided the worst of the 2008 economic meltdown. Now officials in the Russian republic of Tatarstan are hoping that Islamic finance can help them attract direct investment from Muslim nations around the world.
Delegates from as far afield as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates were welcomed last week in a summit on Islamic finance in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

Delegates from more than 60 countries are gathering in Jeddah over the next few days for the 36th annual meeting of the board of governors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, which will take place on June 29-30.
The place of the meeting was changed because of the political turmoil and violence in Yemen.
The common theme in general will be bad political, economic and social governance, tempered with endemic corruption, cronyism, lack of basic individual rights and dignity, and the politics and economics of despair through high unemployment, lack of affordable housing and poverty.

Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) will launch the BLME High Yield Fund. The BLME High Yield Fund is a Sharia compliant fund which targets institutional and high net worth investors in Gulf countries seeking to generate higher returns than those targeted by BLME's US Dollar Income Fund.
By inventing up to 85% in sukuk and 15% in Ijara, BLME High Yield Fund targets a net return of three-month US dollar Libor in addition to a 5% return per annum.

The GCC Islamic banking community is well positioned to build on a leadership role versus other potential competing centers such as Malaysia, Iran or even the UK.
GCC Islamic banks have also prooved their ability to be more innovative in terms of product development and provision of services as they compete for business with conventional banks. However competition in the GCC has also outcome as a fragmented Islamic finance industry with most local institutions remaining relatively minor players on a global scale.

Richard Thomas, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the recent Birthday Honours list of Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the UK Government. Thomas becomes the first UK royal award for civic excellence in Islamic finance.
Fahed Boodai, Kuwaiti chairman of Gatehouse Bank, stated that this recognition is honoring his leading contribution to the development of Shariah-compliant financing over the past 30 years.

Adnan Al-Musallam, chairman of The Investment Dar (TID), fought off any attempt from the last two years from some creditors to put TID under administration or declare it bankrupt.
On June 2, 2011, the Islamic investment company was admitted under the FSL following the approval of the restructuring plan, which was submitted by the company to Kuwait’s Special Circuit Court of Appeal on May 5, 2011.

Submission deadline 15 September 2011

Palgrave Macmillan is pleased to announce a call for papers for the Journal of Derivatives & Hedge Funds

For Islamic banking to grow further and develop there are many challenges relating to financing instruments, market structure and market regulation. The aim of the special issue is to provide a central platform and communication channel for researchers, academics, business leaders and industry practitioners relating to Islamic Banking. The key contextual challenges in the Islamic finance industry today include the innovations and developments at the leading edge of the field, and the long-term impact, scope and authenticity of these ideas in the context of an Islamic community and way of life. View full details at:

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jdhf/jdhf_cfp_islamic.pdf

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- The Shari'ah requirements in Islamic banking and risk identification.
- Current practices of asset management and portfolio management in Islamic banking
- Need of financial innovation in Islamic banking.
- The impact of the Basel Accords on Islamic banking
- Islamic banking and corporate governance

A branch of Banque Populaire du Maroc offers French retail customers Islamic current accounts. More details on their website: http://www.chaabibank.fr/Harmonis/Harmonis.html

Source: http://www.al-kanz.org/2011/06/17/chaabi-bank-agence/

Banque Populaire du Maroc aims to convert 10 % of their 300.000 clients to the new account type. Further the bank plans to offer short term Islamic mortgages (4-5 years) towards end of the year and long term mortgages next year, reported AFP on 20 June.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iX5kUdQ-c0SLwTFkJfm6x...

Banque Populaire du Maroc has a pan European strategy aiming for 40 branches throughout Europe it was announced during the opening in 2009 in the Netherlands.

Source: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/business/news2009/december/banque-chaabi

The Algosaibi family has pulled out of a court case in London with five international banks. The banks that were battling were: Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), ABC Islamic Bank, British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB), Credit Agricole and HSBC.
The case was expected to last for at least two months and has been waiting since two banks in Bahrain collapsed in 2009.

It seems that inspite the fact that London is retaining its top spot as the leading global financial center in 2011, European frontrunners are being challenged by fast developing nations in the Middle East.
Of the four Middle Eastern centers in the GFCI, Dubai has maintained a lead since the index first began in 2007. Qatar is only 8 points behind Dubai having been 135 points behind in the second GFCI in 2007.
The latest GFCI shows that Bahrain and Riyadh are still way behind two Middle Eastern leaders Dubai and Qatar.

The London-based European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB) is now focusing on the Islamic markets of the Middle East and Asia, changing the strategy used until now.
Part of the strategy is to relocate some of its key personnel from its London office to its representative office in Bahrain.

Hillary Clinton brought together hundreds of first, second-generation Americans or Americans-to-be at the Secretary’s Global Diaspora Forum in Washington DC, the reason being to put diversity into work.
It is well known that America ranks first among countries with the largest number of international migrants. That is seen as a potential in America’s national strategy of employing smart-power.
$46 billion is the amount of remittances sent by US Diaspora in 2010, according to the State Department, almost twice the $28.7 billion US Official Development Assistant in 2009. As Hillary Clinton once said: "Using people-to-people exchange is the core of smart power”.

Noor Islamic Bank expects to win at least two mandates to help sell sukuk out of Turkey this year. The statement was given by Chief Executive Officer Hussain Al Qemzi.