IslamicFinance.de

An industrial property fund aimed at institutional investors adressed to institutional investors was started by Bank of London & the Middle East.
The name of the fund is Light Industrial Building Fund and targets a cash on cash yield of 8%.

Rasheed Al Maraj, Bahrain's central bank governor, stated that enders in the country have survived the 2008 financial crisis and the recent political unrest.
Although the first quarter brought a downside of 1.5%, the previous quarter was still up 8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Qatar First Investment Bank and Gulfmena Investments Limited launch Tebyan Asset Management Limited will look to be authorised and regulated by Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority.
Tebyan will mostly be based on serving Islamic institutions, family offices, large family money, UHNWIs and HNWIs whose assets are often allocated to MENA/GCC with some global investment allocations spread over different asset classes.
Haissam Arabi, Gulfmena's CEO, will run Tebyan.

Bank Muamalat was given A3 by RAM Ratings. Bank Muamalat Malaysia’s respective long- and short-term financial institution ratings were also reestablished at A2 and P1.
RAM Ratings expects the bank's credit costs to restrain as a more rigorous credit-risk-management infrastructure has been put together to guarantee stricter financing origination while efforts to clean up legacy troubled credits are almost completed.

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) were employed to take care of the sale of Islamic bonds for Sharjah Islamic Bank (NBS) PJSC.
The bank announced that the dollar-denominated sukuk will be sold subject to market conditions and after fixed-income investor meetings in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Professor Rifaat Abdel Karim was appointed in November 2002 as the inaugural secretary general of the Kuala Lumpur-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), the multilateral prudential and supervisory standard setting organization for the global Islamic financial services industry.
He resigned last year, making place for a new secretary general.
In his statement about the company, he talked about the beginning of the company, about the fact that it took two years to resolve the location where the IFSB should be based and commented on the rumours that there was a political trade-off between Bahrain and Malaysia over the location of IFSB.

The first to receive the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry CSR Label during a special ceremony held at the Dubai Chamber’s premises recently were the following three: Dubai Chamber CSR Label to representatives from Emirates Gas, Intercoil International LLC and Mashreq bank for demonstrating commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the areas of environment, marketplace, workplace and communities.

Wasim Saifi is the Singapore-based global head of Islamic and consumer banking at Standard Chartered Plc (STAN). He affirmed that Singapore is very well positioned to influence with its considerable talent to help innovate Islamic wealth management. He also claimed that once Islamic products will be launched in Singapore, demand will come along.

Since the buiding of the Association for Islamic Finance Advancement (AIFA) in April 2011, human capital development and education and training for the Islamic banking and finance industry has become a great success.
It appears that the association will collaborate with international accreditation bodies such as the US-based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business to develop the standards and curriculum for Malaysia's higher education institutions, and is also cooperating with US publisher, John Wiley, to launch five standard textbooks related to Islamic finance and banking.

Takaful Emarat wants to launch new products and as a result it expects gross written premiums to surge to Dh65 million ($17.7 million) in 2011.
Ghassan Marrouche stated that the new savings products, combined with the expectation that medical insurance will become compulsory in the United Arab Emirates would help the rise of written premiums. He added that demand is already increasing for Islamic insurance, or takaful, products in markets such as India, Pakistan, Jordan and Syria.

Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing is the only global award recognizing outstanding quantitative research in the field of sustainable and socially responsible investing. To be taken in consideration for this prize, you must be submitted by June 30, 2011. This year’s prize-winning study will be announced at the 22nd Annual SRI in the Rockies Conference in New Orleans on October 3, 2011.
The judge will be a an independent jury of scholars and investment professionals.

It is relatively easily for some sectors, such as mining or retail, to have hard metrics to measure and report on their impacts on the environment and society. But when it comes to stories that effect sustainability impacts, it becomes a hard job.
A project that involves creating a common framework for media companies to report on their sustainability impacts has been initiated for the second time and it seeks consulting from the population.
The first public consultation made some changes in the draft guidelines. For example, a new category, 'content', has been introduced in draft two, including guidance on how to report on the quality of content, and its repercussions.

The new Shari’ah-compliant fund appears to be coming at an opportune time for investors to mitigate these risks and to derive inflation-beating returns at lower volatility over the medium to long term. This fund makes way to a combination of global equity, property and income.
This fund has been designed in line with Oasis’s philosophy of matching risk strategies and potential investment returns to an individual’s age, investment time horizon and risk profile. Therefore, the Oasis Crescent Global Low Equity Balanced Fund is fit for investors who are looking for a low-risk investment that will still have the ability to beat inflation.

Dubai's ICD sovereign wealth fund has launched its largest loan since its financial crisis, containing a US$2.8 billion, five-year loan refinancing.
The leaders of an Islamic tranche will be: Dubai Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered, while Citigroup, Emirates Bank and HSBC Bank have been appointed to co-ordinate a conventional tranche.

An Arabic version has been initiated from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and Ecole Superieure des Affaires (ESA).
Since the launch of the initial English language version of the IFQ in March 2007 more than 1,800 examinations have been positioned and over 1,000 of these were placed internationally.
The Arabic IFQ will be available via CBT internationally and candidates with queries regarding the syllabus, training or examination should contact qualifications@cisi.org.

The International Islamic Relief Organization Saudi Arabia succeeded in overcoming many obstacles that obstructed its humanitarian endeavors around the globe. Abdullah Al-Turki, secretary-general of the Muslim World League and chairman of IIROSA’s general assembly stated by pointing out that IIROSA has been instrumental in providing assistance and relief to millions of poor people and victims of civil wars, ethnic conflicts and natural calamities in different parts of the world.
IIROSA won the ISO 9001:2008 quality certification, which is granted to organizations in recognition of their outstanding performance.

The Global Islamic Finance Report for 2011 shows that the global Islamic finance industry is valued at $1.14 trillion and is growing at a rate of 10 % annually. It has been observed that the industry is entering new markets, that were never founded before.

The Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Part will be set up this year by the Muslim Brotherhoodto run in this year’s parliamentary election. They propose that the government sells Islamic bonds for the first time.
The Arab world’s most populous country, where 90 percent of the people are Muslim, has never sold sovereign Islamic debt.

Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia (PIDM) is expecting a collection of aproximatly RM80mil in premiums this year from its insurer members. The company administers the national Takaful and Insurance Benefits Protection System (TIPS) since Dec 31 last year.
The insurer members are composed of 36 general and life insurance companies and 11 takaful operators.
The premiums collected will be used to fund TIPS, which protects owners of takaful certificates and insurance policies from the loss of their eligible takaful and insurance benefits.

LeapFrog Investments seems to be searching for opportunities in Indonesia's Takaful sector.
Several organizations like International Finance Corporation, Soros Fund Management, Flagstone Reinsurance, KfW of Germany and FMO of Netherlands organized the private equity fund back in 2009.