IslamicFinance.de

The word Waqf is used in the Islamic Law in the meaning of holding a property and preserving it so that its fruits, revenues or usufruct is used exclusively for the benefit of an objective of righteousness while prohibiting any use or disposition of it outside its specific objective.
The real innovations in the idea of Waqf began in the early Islamic Period in Madinah. It was initialed by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, when he said that someone should buy the well of Rumah and to designate it as a public utility of drinking water free for all. This brought about a wide range of Awqaf that serve the welfare of the society at large and provide basis for sustainable public utilities in a way that has no precedents in the history of humanity.

Gulf Finance House (GFH) swung to a first-quarter (Q1) net profit helped by aggressive cost cutting and the reversal of a bonus scheme granted in 2008. GFH, which is aiming to raise 500 million US dollars in new capital, said net profit for the quarter ended March 31 was $11.9 million, compared with a net loss of $7.5 million a year earlier.
The bank expects continued interest from shareholders and investors' throughout 2011 to support its business growth and strengthen its position in the market also in the future.

At this year's Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) annual conference came 400 delegates from more than 20 countries from as far afield as South Africa, North Africa, Asia and Europe.
Despite the recent unrest in the kingdom, the conference wasn't affected, it was a big success. The conference closed at the Gulf Hotel and AAOIFI will now carry out training workshops in Bahrain until Friday.

The permanent debt woes in Europe and persistent political tensions in the Middle East have influenced the global indexes in May. The DJIM Citigroup Sukuk Index -- which measures the performance of investment-grade-rated, U.S. dollar-denominated Islamic bonds -- posted the largest gain, closing 0.94% higher to reach 129.85 points, as of the close of trading on May 24.
The DJIM Pakistan Index also gained 12.67% since January 1, 2011.
The DJIM China Offshore Index plummeted 8.65% to 3,465.53, while the DJIM BRIC Index lost 8.56% to 2,114.90.

Clifford Chance has advised Indonesian mobile telecommunications carrier PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler, also known as Axis, on a $1.2 billion sharia-compliant financing.
The deal contains of a $450 million syndicated facility arranged by Deutsche Bank AG Saudi Arabia Ltd. and HSBC Saudi Arabia Ltd.; a $400 million facility funded by the China Development Bank for the purchase of networking equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.; and a $350 million facility arranged by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. for the purchase of equipment from Sweden's LM Ericsson.

Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region, announced that even though Afr ica expects business, it is not open for just any business. She added that the continent can only afford responsible investments.
In her oppinion, Africa needs investments that are people-focused and pro-poor, promotes Africa’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, helps in creating jobs and promotes transparency, accountability as well as good governance.

Esso Malaysia Bhd has redeemed and cancelled its RM300m ($98m) Islamic commercial paper notes from their 2004/2011 program because it has decided to propose a new 2011/2018 Islamic commercial paper program of the same size that received a preliminary short-term P1 rating from RAM Ratings.

Hikmet Allahverdiyez, director of Moore Stephens in Azerbaijan, has the strong oppinion that if banks won't be aloud to have more freedom to invest across the economy, Islamic finance will fail. Azerbaijani banks can only provide "a limited set of Shari'ah compliant products" to retail customers.
At the end of last year Elman Rustamov, chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, stated that the CBA has no plans to develop Islamic banking within the next two to three years.

It appears that Malaysia is planning a 10-year Sukuk denominated in the beleaguered currency.
Before 2010 issue Malaysia had only tapped the international Islamic debt capital market on two occasions before: once in 2002 and once in 2001. The 2002 issue was also a 5-year Ijarah Sukuk and was for $600m.

In a recent survey, HSBC shows that 68% of the Malaysians worry about their retirement. The survey contains interviews with more than 17,000 people in 17 countries.
The survey reveiles that although 69 per cent of Malaysians are looking forward for the freedom that retirement gives you, 24 per cent are concerned about the cost of caring for their parents in their old age.

The International conference's conclusions on "Prospects for Islamic Venture Capital Funds in India" were that India needs to make steps to allow various financial institutions to adopt Islamic products and practices and to lay foundations of a level playing field in economics and finance in which all players are alloud to take part in a fair and just manner.
The organizers of the two-day International conference were the Institute of Objective Studies, (IOS), New Delhi and Indo-Arab Economic Cooperation Forum. The conference was held on May 14 & 15 May at the Parliament House Annexe. Foreign participants at the conference were: Dr. Rudy Yaksick, Partner, Concord Capital Partners LLC, from USA and Khaled M. Al-Aboodi, CEO & General Manager of Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), Jeddah; Mr. Nabil El-Alami, Corporate Marketing & Communication Manager, ICD, Jeddah, KSA.

Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, will honor the invitations of the presidents of the Republics of Benin, Togo, Sierra-Leone, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Niger.
The delegation that will attend him contains: the Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs, Ambassador Hameed Opeloyeru; the Director, African Affairs, Ambassador Yahaya Lawal and a host of senior officials from the General Secretariat.

Last week Dubai’s Islamic bonds had the smallest results in six months.
The rate fell to a record low of 4.6 percent on May 19. The average yield of Gulf sukuk was unchanged last week at 4.55 percent altough the yields on Bahrain’s government bond dropped. It couldn't have been a more poorly moment because the investors reckoned on the Emirates as being a safe area.

Saudi Hollandi Bank and the International Finance Corp have signed an agreement to support small to medium businesses in the kingdom. This also contains the fact that SHB will work with the IFC to study and quantify the kingdom's SME business segment and introduce credit policies, processes, products and services that will simplify the banking experience for small to medium businesses.

First Community Bank has sold a Sh200 million treasury bond that was considered not to be Shariah compliant. The profit for the lender after the taxtes was of Sh26.6 million in the first quarter of the year. The bank’s “other income” rose to Sh62.9 million from Sh2.4 million on a quarter to quarter comparison.

Bahrain has inovated the modern Islamic finance industry in the region, as its history on Islamic finance goes back to more than 40 years.
Khalid Hamad, Executive Director of Banking Supervision at the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), that their was to introduce new concepts and to formulate rules and standards for Shariah-compliant financial transactions.
Khalid Hamad, while commenting on the AAOIFI Annual Shariah Conference which opens on Monday in Bahrain, undelined the fact that the CBB has always been supporting AAOIFI and its conference as part of its commitment to the industry.

Since November 2002, Professor Rifaat Abdel Karim is the inaugural secretary general of the Kuala Lumpur-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB). During this time, the organization increased from its nine founding members to 195 to date, including 53 regulatory authorities and central banks from 41 jurisdictions.
In the interview he gave MUSHTAK PARKER, he stated that the IFSB approach to prudential and supervisory regulation is cross-sectoral which he first espoused in 2003 at a meeting during the World Bank/IMF Group meetings in Dubai in 2003. He also added that the board has developed strategies for the facilitation and the implementation of its standards.

The OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) Business Forum was held on June 2008 in Uganda.
At that point it was declared that the National Islamic Bank would be set up in Uganda. This will bring Uganda in line with some other EAC member countries like Kenya that have already opened their doors to this form of banking. Such new banking products will increase the depth, breadth and range of finance products bank customers can use to access banking services and as an alternative to the current interest bearing financial products under the conventional banking system.

It appears that top shareholders of Indonesia's PT Bank Muamalat is trying to sell at least a 51 percent stake in the unlisted Islamic lender, in a deal that may be valued at about $300 million. Bank Muamalat confirmed the sale process. Bloomberg states that the deal may value the bank at $600 million.
Although Chinese Banking Corp had also looked at the bank in the first round, it seems that they are no longer interested.

Mr Ajaz Khan implies on the “Poverty matters blog” problem on the website of the UK’s Guardian newspaper that Islamic microfinance has strong potential to support socioeconomic development. Mr Khan brings up the fact that there is a growing interest among financial institutions in offering products and services that are shariah-compliant to facilitate development within Muslim communities.
He also adds the fact that Muslims – and non-Muslims – may be attracted to Islamic finance because there is evidence of higher rates of economic growth from Islamic microfinance because it can enable microentrepreneurs to take greater risks than users of standard microfinance products; (2) investment is only permitted in activities deemed socially beneficial; and (3) there is generally an emphasis on fostering a longer-term relationship between lender and borrower.