IslamicFinance.de

Indonesian personal finance assistant PT Solusi Finansialku plans to launch a dedicated Islamic feature to capture a broader base of investors. Finansialku currently has more than six certified financial planners focused on Shariah-compliant investing but lacks a dedicated Islamic section on its app and platform. Its app has been downloaded 203,000 times since April 2017 and it is targeting 4 million downloads by 2022. Finansialku started in 2013 and only digitalised in 2016, moving its services online and to an app. Its advisors are CFPs certified by the national authority the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB).

Dubai made a rare foray into public bond markets, revealing that its debt burden is now a lot smaller than estimated by analysts only months ago. The emirate’s outstanding direct debt stood at 123.5 billion dirhams ($33.6 billion) as of June 30. That’s about 28% of last year’s gross domestic product. Dubai's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, trade and retail, sectors hardest hit by the emergency. The global pandemic forced Dubai to delay this year’s World Expo. The government revised this year’s budget revenue to 44.2 billion dirhams down more than 30% from what it originally envisaged. It also decreased its projected expenditure to 56.2 billion dirhams for 2020, leaving a deficit of 11.9 billion dirhams. Dubai owes a total of $20 billion to the Abu Dhabi government and the UAE central bank, an amount it used to support strategic entities that required financial assistance.

The targets set by the UAE to prepare the country’s economy for a post-hydrocarbon era have been very ambitious. As part of its economic diversification actions, the UAE has undertaken to increase the clean energy contribution to the total energy mix from 0.2% in 2014, to 24% by 2021. In the UAE Energy Strategy 2050, a target is set of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050 and increasing the use of clean energy to meet 50% of the country’s energy needs by the same year. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 similarly sets out the emirate’s aim of transforming Dubai into a global clean energy centre. These goals will require considerable capital investment. However, while other centres for Islamic finance have seen a growing number of responsible finance sukuk issuances, there have been noticeably fewer issuances in the UAE. Mobilising private sector finance through responsible financing activities will be critical in helping the UAE government to meet its extensive sustainability targets.

Dubai has hired banks to arrange investor calls ahead of a potential sale of U.S. dollar-denominated 10-year sukuk and 30-year conventional bonds. Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered are mandated to arrange the calls. The benchmark issuance is part of a $6 billion sukuk issuance programme and of a $5 billion bond issuance programme. The new issuance could bolster the finances of the Middle East trade, finance and tourism hub, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis this year.

Masraf Al Rayan has announced the issuance of $750mn Sukuk with a term of five years under the bank's existing $2bn sukuk programme. The issuance was 4.4 times oversubscribed to the tune of nearly $3.3bn. The overwhelming demand from investors has allowed the bank to increase the issue size from an initial $500mn to $750mn. The issuance was priced at a spread of 185 basis points over the five-year mid swap carrying a fixed profit rate of 2.21% per annum. Al Rayan Investment, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Mizuho, MUFG, QNB Capital, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners on this transaction.

Islamic banks have emerged stronger after each monetary disaster which uncovered the weaknesses of the traditional banking methods. Millennium Info Answer FZ-LLC (MISL) launched its operations on the Dubai Worldwide Metropolis to assist Islamic banks to migrate to their new-generation core banking solution called Ababil. Ababil is an end-to-end superior core-banking solution covering Company and Retail Banking, Funding Banking, Financing Origination System, Buyer Info File (CIF), Commerce Finance, Treasury Administration, Agent Banking, Offshore Banking, Revenue Distribution, Accounting & MIS, Payroll, Drilled Down Reporting, and so on. Along with Ababil, MISL is offering its newest human resources solution Sylvia and risk-based auditing solution Tahqiq.

The Authority of Social Contribution, Ma’an, is urging all social entrepreneurs in the UAE and wider MENA region to complete the online application, as the Authority announces an extension for registrations until 12th September. The teams shortlisted for the Social Incubator programme will aim to strengthen the interactions and create stronger emotional bonding between parents, children, relatives, the elderly and couples across the Emirate and highlight the importance of family values. Ma’an will shortlist and support 10 winning social start-ups, who will then undergo a 90 day training programme and develop their ideas into business ventures. Ma’an will invest more than AED 2 million in total in this cycle with the successful applicants also having access to milestone-based funding, mentorship, office space, business expertise and investors.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt businesses in Kenya, the Muslim community has been urged to take advantage of financial institutions offering low bank charges. Islamic finance expert Khalfan Abdallah has urged the government to rethink how to accommodate Muslims in various financial support programmes such as Youth and Women Fund. Mr Abdallah said the government should borrow a leaf from Momentum Credit Micro Finance which has started offering Sharia compliance loans to Muslims using logbooks as collateral. He urged the Muslim business community who are affected by Covid-19 pandemic to take advantage of Momentum Sahih products.

GFH Financial Group announced that it has acquired an additional 21.8% stake in Global Banking Corporation. The deal gives GFH a majority stake of 50.4% in the Bahrain-based investment bank following Central Bank of Bahrain approval to acquire up to a 60% shareholding. Established in 2007, GB Corp targets high-net-worth individuals and institutional and government clients across the GCC countries. As of December 2019, GB Corp reported total assets of $125 million and assets under management of approximately $500 million.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector’s credit strengths lie within its robust liquidity buffer and high quality treasury portfolio. While ICD remained lossmaking in 2019, the size of the losses narrowed significantly, and capital adequacy was supported by ongoing payments from shareholders under the second general capital increase. Moody’s analyst Thaddeus Best expects that the ICD will temper its balance sheet expansion in order to preserve capital. It is anticipated that the bank’s increased focus on term lending operations will help ease credit risk over the coming years.

The Islamic finance sector is growing, and as the global community responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, key stakeholders are working together to address the challenges. Islamic finance will continue to grow over the next decade across asset classes and markets, creating a unique window of opportunity to align components of its investments with the UN SDGs. Impact investing and Islamic finance are complementary and compatible. The UAE and the GCC overall are key hubs for Islamic finance. Further awareness is needed to make Islamic finance leaders and GCC governments to align in this movement, and to continue to consider how they can most effectively capitalize on impact investing to generate positive returns whilst making the ongoing positive impact on society.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, concentration on retail financing and other structural features will help Islamic banks safeguard against a deterioration in asset quality and profitability. Islamic banks have sufficient loss buffers against financial stress, with their funding and liquidity remaining stable. The seven largest Islamic banks in Malaysia, five of which are subsidiaries of domestic banking groups with conventional operations, have a heavy concentration on retail financing, which is less vulnerable to an economic downturn. In addition, Malaysian banks generally have prudent underwriting practices for retail financing, which adds to their asset quality.

An important Islamic imperative is prevention of concentration of wealth among a few so that wealth circulates widely to enhance shared prosperity. In contemporary economic discourse inequality and concentration of wealth have emerged as among key causes of instability and crisis. Unfortunately, while Islamic finance has emerged as a Shari’ah-compliant industry, it does not seem to be connected with the Islamic concern about inequality and concentration of wealth. This research paper illuminates the pertinent issues in light of the experience of Bahrain as one of the hubs of Islamic banking and finance.

In July, a group of 83 of the world’s richest people calling itself Millionaires for Humanity urged governments to increase taxes on them to help deal with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Their idea, the latest version of a wealth tax was received as almost revolutionary. Although wealth taxes may seem bold and innovative, however, the concept is almost as old as money itself. Since the ancient Greeks there have been wealth taxes in various countries right through to the present day. More recently than the ancient Greeks, a wealth tax has been foundational to Islamic practice. The zakat functions as a 2.5% wealth tax on liquid assets. Modern wealth taxes have often failed because they haven’t learned from their historical equivalents.

Indonesia's government launched retail sukuk SR013 to raise Rp 5 trillion (US$343 million) to fund the state budget in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tradable debt papers, set to mature on Sept. 10, 2023, offer a fixed annual yield at 6.05%. Investors can buy the bonds for Rp 1 million to Rp 3 billion from Aug. 28 and Sept. 23 at 31 partnering distributors, which include conventional and sharia-compliant banks, as well as online investment platforms. As of Aug. 6, the government has issued Rp 236.82 trillion in domestic sukuk, which nearly topped last year’s issuance of Rp 258.28 trillion. The government raised in July Rp 18.33 trillion from government retail bond issuance ORI-017, the highest proceeds ever recorded in an online bond offering by the country.

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in partnership with the Saudi-Spanish Center for Islamic Economic and Finance have launched an Islamic Finance Changemakers Competition to support social entrepreneurs, innovators and business leaders seeking to create a better society.

Through this initiative, IsDB and Saudi-Spanish Center for Islamic Economic and Finance hopes to support changemakers by giving them visibility of what they are developing. The Islamic Finance Changemakers Challenge will give Changemakers the opportunity to win awards to help grow their initiatives.

The awards for the top three winners are:
•1st position: $ 15,000 + 1-year IE Mentoring Program
•2nd position: $ 10,000
•3rd position: $ 5,000

Dear Reader,

for Q1 / 2021 a second book is to be published in German after the successful standard reference for financial professionals in German.

A first interview is online (in German!!):

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9sOXVxd28ucG9kY2FzdGVyLmRlL0l...
https://podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/islamicmediaclub/id1503189930?i=10...
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7BkZS8KVt3EWlkmvcyu5WM?si=2bRPowl1RdO9F...

The new book targets the consumer rather than the professional as for a couple years an Islamic bank and some investment funds are offered in Germany - hence it is time for consumer education.

Best regards,

Michael Gassner
www.islamicwealthmanagement.com

Kuwait-based Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance is to delay delivery of its aircraft order from Airbus as a result of the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation industry. Although the number of aircraft impacted is unclear, reports suggest Airbus currently has 43 A320neo and ten A321neo jets on order to be delivered. Future pre-delivery payments between the company and Airbus will be realigned, along with a new delivery schedule, which will result in rescheduling the upcoming pre-delivery payments for this year and the upcoming three years to year 2024 and onward. Earlier this month it was revealed that Alafco had ended a $336 million legal dispute with US aerospace giant Boeing over a cancelled order.

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) signed an $8 million worth of Murabaha-structured line of trade finance with Uzbekistan's Trustbank. The financing aims to minimise the impact of COVID-19 by supporting the import and pre-export financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country. ITFC CEO Hani Salem Sonbol said this operation is in addition to five other lines of finance in favour of local banks in Uzbekistan since 2018, and reflects the ITFC’s unbending commitment to the nation of Uzbekistan.

Noor Takaful has announced the distribution of surplus (cashback) payment worth over fifteen million Naira to participants who did not make claims. The company has also announced the launch of its mobile app to make its products and services more accessible to the retail market. This second batch of payment is an increase from 12 million naira distributed in 2019 to policyholders who did not make claim in that pertaining year. Acting Managing Director of the company, Aminu Tukur stated that the distribution of surplus to policyholders has continued to serve as a big pull for the Takaful insurance market with interested participants joining daily.