IslamicFinance.de

The Regulation on Asset Quality Assessment for Commercial Sharia Banks and Sharia Business Units of Bank Indonesia has been launched to promote and improve the application of prudential risk management principles in the Sharia-based banking industry and to update regulations on Sharia banking business in light of the introduction of the Law on Sharia Banking (21/2008).
In conlusion, the regulation requires Sharia-compliant banks and Sharia business units to assess and supervise their own asset activities and to be proactive in ensuring the liquidity of their productive and non-productive assets.

Some trade creditors of Nakheel are offering a potential 1.6 billion US dollars Islamic bond by the developer at a discount in the secondary market as a desperate need for cash outweighs hopes for a full repayment.
Nakheel plans to repay 60 percent of its debt to trade creditors through the sale of a six billion United Arab Emirates (UAE) dirhams ($1.63 billion) Islamic bond, expected by the end of the first half.

Maybank Islamic, Asia-Pacific's largest syariah lender, is going to expand its business in the Asean region and may offer Islamic stockbroking services through Singapore stockbroker Kim Eng, which its parent recently acquired.
The bank's parent Maybank is embarking on an expansion drive to become a regional bank. It operates in 14 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bahrain.

In order to grow its business in Pakistan, Standard Chartered plans to focus on expanding its consumer banking line as well as its Islamic banking portfolio. this statement was given by the bank’s Pakistan head, Mohsin Nathani.
Nathani also revealed that the bank plans on expanding its credit card and personal loans portfolio in addition to expanding the number of products on offer to its retail customers.

Lim Hng Kiang, the Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Minister for Trade and Industry, said that Singapore’s Ministry of Finance will issue new income tax regulations for Islamic finance.
He underlined the fact that there was a need to ensure that the legal and regulatory regimes remain robust in ensuring the soundness of Islamic markets and institutions, and yet conducive for Islamic finance to grow at a sustainable rate.

The consolidation happening within the Malaysian Takaful sector continues quickly with MNRB Holdings, formerly Malaysian National Reinsurance Berhad, in the final stages of talks it has been having with the Malaysian subsidiary of German financial services giant Allianz, Allianz Malaysia, to sell a stake in Takaful Ikhlas, its Takaful subsidiary.
MNRB is looking to get rid of a 49% interest in Takaful Ikhlas, a move that was approved by the central bank late last year, and talks have been progressing since then.

Sudan already has an established Islamic banking system. The question for Sudan is whether to to allow conventional - interest-based - finance back into the financial mix. The argument is that although the concept of Riba is against Shari'ah, the country needs to borrow on the open capital markets as it's facing a huge budget deficit with many essential social services found wanting for funds.
Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir said that the government is going to propose a process of consultation with bodies that were concerned about the reintroduction of Riba into the system, including Imams, Shari'ah scholars and Islamic economists.

Hamptons International claims Omani move to introduce Shari’ah-compliant Islamic financial services ‘promises to impart a much-needed fillip to the real estate sector’.
It seems that the recent Royal Directive authorising the offering of Islamic banking services has the potential to jumpstart a recovery of the once-vibrant property market.

The latest list of Shariah advisers serving the local Islamic capital market (ICM) and registered by the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC) reveales that five such individual foreign advisers are registered with the commission.
The list, published recently in Kuala Lumpur, displays that Malaysia has 45 individual Shariah advisers and 10 Shariah advisory companies registered with the commission, who are authorized to provide such advisory services to market players in the local ICM, which includes investment funds, asset management, unit trusts, sukuk, private debt securities and other fixed income instruments.

Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry, who is also the Deputy Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) (the financial regulator), announced at a conference in the island state that Singapore will in due course issue new income tax regulations for Islamic finance to provide greater tax clarity and certainty to the industry.
It is no secret that Singapore is reaching to be a global hub for Islamic wholesale banking services, asset management and capital markets.

Qatar and three other GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE are ssen as four of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest density ultra-wealthy households.
According to the study, “ultra-high-net-worth” (UHNW) households or those with more than $100m in AuM, are mostly situated in Saudi Arabia registering 18 per 100,000 households.
Qatar, Kuwait and UAE also made it to the top ten list in terms of the highest proportion of millionaire household by market with 8.9 percent, 8.5 percent and 2.6 percent millionaire households, respectively.

Former Vice President Al Gore announced at the first national conference on social investment in Washington that ESG practices offer “unprecedented opportunities” for investors.
With an estimated 20% of market participants engaged to some extent in sustainable capitalism, Mr. Gore revealed that his goal is to see it reach 80% within 10 years.

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”.

Solitaire Townsend wrote a lleter to Google. The reason for writing this letter is the fact that Google has already transformed advertising by combining elements of direct marketing and traditional newspaper ads. Google has fingers in green technology, biotech, holiday rental crowd-sourcing, online payment services, neighbour-to-neighbour car-sharing, and data extrapolation.
As it is quoted from the letter: "The rest of us want out of the banks and into Google Ventures, and we have the money to make it worth your while. Nearly 40% of UK households have an ISA, with over £220bn invested in the scheme since 1999." It is suggested that Google could officiate a "marriage" waiting to happen between crowd-funders and sustainable businesses.

Alliance Islamic Bank Berhad wil introduce the Alliance Family Takaful Investment-Linked Plan, a Shariah-compliant family takaful investment-linked product.
This product launch is a collaboration between Alliance Islamic Bank Berhad with Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd (Takaful IKHLAS) and FWU Malaysia Sdn Bhd (FWU Malaysia).

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) Assistant General Manager (AGM) for Finance Sector Emad Al-Thaqeb stated Islamic banking institutions, including KFH have experience in financing major local and overseas developmental projects. Furthermore, they have strong financial coverage that allows them to meet the financing requirements for the Kuwaiti development plan.
Al-Thaqeb mentioned that the Central Bank of Kuwait took into consideration the requirements of this phase by recommending an increase in the margin of loans in return for deposits at local banks that ranges from 85-100 %.

Aspiring Islamic finance centres like Singapore and Malaysia may see an inflow of funds in search of Islamic banking alternatives.
Analysts said the recent turmoil in the Middle East has made some syariah-compliant investors to pull their money out of that region. They also think that Islamic finance has huge potential to appeal to non-Muslim investors as well. They believe that Islamic finance can be demystified and better understood with more investor education.

Fraj Zaag was appointed general manager of Al Baraka Bank Tunis.
Mr Zaaq's experience comes from 27 years as a senior staff and afterwards from the position as a Deputy General Manager of Al Baraka Bank Tunis. He has developed strong business ties with clientele in the banking sector and business circles in Tunis and abroad.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang, deputy chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, announced that new income tax rules for Islamic finance products will be launched.
The new regulations will include financing agreements based on financing through partnership agreement, project financing and the interbank placement of funds.

Egypt’s National Bank for Development (NBD) has revealed its new new Shari’ah-compliant medium-term savings product that offers an annual profit posted on monthly basis with expected profit rate ranging between 9-9.25 per cent.