IslamicFinance.de

Gatehouse Bank plc will join Paul Napier Ltd in order to form Gatehouse Napier. This wil be the world's first Shariah compliant insurance broker which offers premium Takaful and Re-Takaful commercial risk solutions in London.
It appears that GCC investors have invested more than £3bn on UK commercial property in the post financial crisis.

Watania, the National Takaful Company, plans to launch next monday its initial public offering (IPO). The aim is to raise Dh82.5 million, that means 55 % of the share capital.
Anastasios Dalgiannakis, head of trading at Mubasher Financial Services, pointed out that IPOs of attractive assets are generally positive and helpful for the markets as they bring interesting investment opportunities.

Contrary of what people thought, the adoption of the draft mortgage law has been delayed. The Shoura Council's Finance Committee will change some in the aspects of the definition and disbursement of a mortgage loan. After that, the draft law will be again submitted to the full Shoura Council at a future session for adoption.
Such a proccess can take a few months at least. Saudi bankers began to express their exasperation because of this never ending proccess and they state out that such things should have been discussed at the beginning.

Da Afghanistan Bank stated that it expects a new Islamic banking law to be enacted by September this year. The reason are the thirty years of war and insurgency that have reduced Afghanistan to a strong reliance on foreign aid.
The aim is to minimize the the nation's trust on overseas aid and rebuild the country's brittle economy.
The move would also draw billions in deposits from citizens wary of the conventional banking system. An Islamic banking law could brighten up the industry.

Malaysia's Bank Islam has a plan to acquire a stake in Indonesian lender PT Bank Muamalat.
Some sources say that Bank Islam decided against a bid as it was deemed too expensive.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak exposed what CMP2 means: changes to the regulatory framework for fundraising and product regulation to slash unnecessary red tape and lead to faster turnaround of approvals. The purpose is to open the potential of the market.
At the "Invest Malaysia 2011" conference, Najib stated that there is a plan to increase the number of Proprietary Day Traders by almost threefold to enable more dealer representatives to become specialised traders.
Present at the conference were: Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Haji Abdullah, chairman of Bursa Malaysia, Tnn Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor, Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, chairman of Securities Commission, Tan Sri Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor, chairman of Maybank Goup, Datuk Tajuddin Atan, the new chief executive officer of Bursa Malaysia and Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, the chief executive officer of Maybank Group.

A report of the National shows that GDP forecasts for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar in its World Economic Outlook was raised by the International Monetary Fund.

After eight months of increased prices, FAO Food Price Index finally announced a drop.
Altough 37% higher than last year in march, the prices have dropped by 2.9% since february. FAO said that the main products that brought this drop are: oils and sugar, followed by cereals.

The Central bank of Indonesia estimates that the nation’s Islamic assets will improve by 55% this year.
That's why Albaraka Banking Group and Qatar Islamic Bank have a goal: to produce Shariah-compliant financers in Indonesia.
Chief executive Adnan Ahmed Yousif pointed out that Albaraka is ready to spend $100 million on an acquisition.
Indonesia has 11 full-fledged Islamic lenders and 23 other banks that offer Islamic services. The government want to begin selling short-term Islamic treasury bills for the first time in the second half of the year.

HSBC Amanah Shariah wants to allocate USD 2.12 million through PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) for the development of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
The funds from HSBC to MSMEs will be chanelled through its Shariah-based microfinance branches.

Dubai’s Department of Finance has developted a plan to raise $800 million. It wants to monetize road toll receipts. The aim is to fund infrastructure projects.
A six-year financing could support the Roads and Transport Authority’s infrastructure projects.
Th main arrangers and book-runners for the financing are: Citibank, Commerical Bank of Dubai, Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank.

“1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World,”, an exhibition that opened up in December 2010 in New York Hall of Science showed the influence stretched from China to Spain for hundreds of centuries.
“1001 Inventions” is a global educational initiative. The aim of this is to promote awareness of a thousand years of scientific and cultural achievements from Muslim civilization from the 7th century onwards.
The original creators of this initiative are: Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, FSTC, a British based non-profit, non-religious and academic organization.

Dubai Bank allevates mortgage payments for thousands of buyers of homes in stalled residential projects. The lender wants also to rework payment schedules for "eligible customers".
Hundreds of developments in Dubai have been delayed. That means that buyers are responsible for mortgage payments on units they cannot occupy.
There is no central authority that decides which bank products comply with Islamic law. This most be adressed to the oown Sharia boards and they are free to have their own interpretation.

Young Emiratis and residents of the UAE are beginning to buy more and more luxury products that they can't afford, only to fit into a richer social circle. Most of this persons are men.
Mayfair Wealth Management lead a study that explains this kinf of behaviour. Few women invest their cash in property or equities and that gives them access to more cash. Moreover, the estimated wealth of Khaleeji women was $40 billion in 2009.

Despite of the global crisis, islamic banking is growing rapidly.
An export expressed the oppinion that Turkey could help the nation in its decision how to proceed. Khalid Ferdaus Howladar, the vice president and senior credit officer of Moody’s in the Middle East, advised that Turkish Central Bank take the lead in establishing a global standard that would help Islamic banking become more transparent.

The Clarion Hotel, IFSC, Dublin will host on Monday 11 April 2011 a conference on Islamic finance opportunities for Ireland. There will be discussed domestic and global banking and corporate opportunities.
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants will organize the event that is programmed to start at 9.30am and end at 1.00pm.

Saudi investors voted to begin investing in Bosnia with a starting capital of $50 million. Turkey announced that it will extend credit lines for infrastructure projects.
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Al Baraka BARKA.BH banking group and other Saudi investors have formed a joint investment company for Bosnia that tries to help Bosnia in its process of development.

First Bahrain announced that it still captivates overseas companies to set up business in Bahrain. Switz Group chose Majaal warehousing and logistics complex for its location to serve the expansion of their subsidiary brand, named Bahrain Masterbaker WLL.
They will import products such as the ever-popular cup cakes, pastries and samosa leaves from their Saudi Masterbaker operation in Saudi Arabia.
Another subsidiary, named Masterbaker Trading WLL, is also being setup in the same facility but it will import bakery ingredients from Europe and USA.

A law that helps moneylaundrers has been approved, after councillors Rabab Al Arrayedh and Dalal Al Zayed expressed their oppinion that argued the fact that people against which noone has substancial evidence could be convicted.
In conclusion, only suspects that are clearly tied to a case can prosecuted.

A plan has been developed by Indonesian finance ministry to sell sukuk in auctions on April 12. The aim is to raise one trillion rupiah in order to defray the deficit from this year.