IslamicFinance.de

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 23, 2011 – The Muslim Philanthropy Award winners were announced at the 4th annual banquet of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists in Dubai, UAE.

Every year, the Muslim Philanthropy Award honors an individual, a grantmaking institution and a corporation for their distinguished contribution to the field of philanthropy.

The Muslim Philanthropy Awards for 2011 were awarded to H.R.H. Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Personality) for demonstrating outstanding civic and charitable responsibility; Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Arabia (Grantmaker) for showing long-standing commitment to economic empowerment, human dignity, and institutional building; and Abraaj Capital, UAE (Corporation) for demonstrating longstanding leadership in advancing strategic philanthropy, creativity in responding to societal problems, and having significant positive impact on corporate giving in MENA region.

The key challenges and opportunities addressed in the Islamic Wealth Management Report are:

•Managing the Islamic wealth cycle through the entire process of wealth acquisition, preservation and distribution and achieving the required balance between spiritual and worldly obligations.
•Understanding the primary issues facing Waqf donors despite the strong growth drivers in this market: poor performance is due in part to the shortage of professionals leading to low quality asset management and lack of transparency.
•Considering the suitability of the Swiss private banking family office structure as a wealth management tool to ensure effective Islamic governance.
•Addressing the challenges facing Islamic mutual funds to achieve growth and performance.
•Recommending standardisation, education and diversification of Sukuk in order to increase the supply of products and the liquidity of the market.
•Analysing Islamic equity and indices performance over the last year to illustrate that diversification remains key for investment without compromising Islamic principles.

There is a possibility that the Islamic finance will launch this year in the Tatarstan republic in the form of sukuk.
Gazprombank has been researching and developing Islamic finance tools for several years. The Director of Gazprombank stated that Russia is ready for sukuk.

Turkey’s Islamic banks want to take advantage of the lowest borrowing costs in more than five years and the rising demand for the country’s securities by salling sukuk.
The Turkish government takes in consideration to change tax laws in order to encourage sukuk sales.
Bebinning with last april the government also allowed companies to to issue debt in accordance with Islamic finance rules.

In order to pay Iran for the import of oil, India looks at the possibility of opening ccounts in banks like Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank. National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) is also looking at opening an account in a UAE or Turkey based bank to receive direct money transfer from oil companies.

Noor Islamic Bank doesn't plan to extend for now.
The deal size on the two issues owned by Noor Islamic Bank, one in the Gulf region and another one in Turkey, is between $250 million to $300 million.

Following the partnership between Sesame and Islamic Bank of Britain for Islamic mortgage alternative, Sesame Network members will have the opportunity to access the full range of IBB’s Sharia compliant mortgage alternative, the Home Purchase Plan.
IBB has an intermediary helpline (0121 456 7842) and the only dedicated intermediary Islamic finance website (www.ibbintermediaries.com) in the UK. Furthermore, brokers will be supported by the Bank’s intermediary team in earning ompetitive procuration fees.

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.

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.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett began an expedition in order to promote their commitment named ‘Giving Pledge’. This commitment is an engagement made by billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth.
The question is if the next stop for this programme is Turkey.
At this point this programme appears to be not so welcomed, as in China Buffett and Gates got a pretty indifferent response, in public at least, and none of India’s economic winners has yet signed on.

The International Halal Integrity Alliance has begun its work on guidelines relating to the use of sharia-compliant pharmaceuticals, finance and processed food which would be completed by the end of the year.
Cief executive officer Darhim Hashim said that seven other standars, that include the regulation of sharia-compliant restaurants, cosmetics, lab testing and animal slaughtering, were elaborated.
Members from the alliance are from Europe, India, the Phillipines, Cambodia and Australia.

Tatarstan seems to be the first region in which Russia will launch an Islamic bond. The aim is to serve people that in the past were underserviced.
The experts say that Russia's position is very good for attracting Islamic investing and the country is rich in infrastructure and agriculture.

The attenders at the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) will be, among others, central bank governors, representatives from Bahrain, the UAE, Jordan, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bahrain, and many international finance and economic experts.
The host of the conference will be the Central Bank of Luxembourg and the theme is "Enhancing Global Financial Stability. Challenges and Opportunities for Islamic Finance".

Arcapita Bank is an invest firm from Bahrain, which is optimistic for the future sales of additional asset. The bank has sold 80% stake in 72 storage sites to the Shurgard Europe company from Brussels.

Norton Rose (Middle East) LLP has advised Citibank as arranger in relation to a US$300,000,000 dual tranche Murabaha syndicated facility for Turkiye Finans Kat?l?m Bankas? A.S., an Islamic bank in Turkey 60% owned by the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. It is the largest Islamic syndication in Turkey to date.
The initial transaction size was increased to US$300,000,000 due to high interest from banks in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Al Baraka Turk Participation Bank showed an increase in total operating income of three per cent. After deducting expenses, provisions and taxes, net income increased by 35 per cent for the period.
Turkey is considered as one of the key markets for the group because of the diversity and abundance of economic activities and huge promising opportunities that it offers.

Educational courses on Islamic economy are going to be eld by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) in Paris, France. The participants will become familiar with Islamic Shari’a in economic fields.

Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (KTPB) has set the tone by venturing abroad into Germany, Dubai, Bahrain and Kazakhstan and by pioneering new products based on physical gold and exporting them to markets in Malaysia and elsewhere through the global network of KFH. These include gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs), gold-backed banking accounts and sukuk. Ufuk Uyan, CEO of Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank has been at the forefront of the expansion of KTPB, taking it to the top 10 tier of Turkish banks. Here Ufuk Uyan discusses with Arab News the state of the participation banking sector in Turkey, the performance of KTPB in 2010 and the prospects and challenges for the industry in 2011 and beyond.