IslamicFinance.de

Altough Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) has delayed its pregrammed launch because of the political unrest, the firm plans to begin tradings in two weeks.
BFX offers trading in both conventional and Islamic products in equities, derivatives, commodities and currencies.
Arshad Khan, managing director and chief executive of BFX, assures that the company will stay in Bahrain inspite of the political situation.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak states that the passing of the law to give tax advantages to Korean companies issuing Islamic sukuk bonds doesn't make it easier for terorists to take money away.

Reuters found out that the Philippines government wants Middle East investors to take a risk in the country's sole sharia lender and help kickstart its Islamic banking industry.
The main idea is that gulf investors have the needed capital for Al-Amanah Islamic Bank, who wants to to accelerate the socio-economic development of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

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.

Danajamin Nasional Bhd announced the issuance of the first tranche of TSH Sukuk Musyarakah Sdn Bhd’s (TSH) 11-year RM100-million Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTNs) programme.

The newly-launched Takaful mySME plan is expected to bring an income of RM10 million over the next 12 months. Group Managing Director Datuk Mohamed Hassan Kamil announced that the targets in the beginning are small-and-medium enterprise (SME) sectors of light manufacturing, food and beverages, retail, offices and services.
Takaful Malaysia also singned a Memorandum of Understanding with SME Corp Malaysia that has the purpose to jointly educate and create awareness among SME entrepreneurs on the importance of solid risk management processes.

Although MENA didn't think this will happen, march prooved that sukuk can be further trusted, as it had enough sukuk deals and announcements.
Because of the political unrest in various parts of the Middle East and North Africa many potential issuers postponed their plans to enter the Islamic debt capital market.
The most interesting deal so far is the closure of Bank Al Jazira at the end of the month, being the first corporate sukuk made out of the Kingdom so far this year.

Al Baraka Bank Tunisia stated that it had good results in 2010, increasing the net operating profit of the Bank with 4%, assets by 12% financing by 7%, deposits by 13% and shareholders equity by 8%. The reason for this good results are the many activities in the Bank's financing and investment in 2010.
For the future, Al Baraka Tunisia plans to leverage its new state-of-the-art core banking systems, the aim being to intensify the banking services offered to its customers, including e-banking.

The "Best Gulf Countries Fund", "Best Gulf Countries Islamic Fund" and "Best Arab Fund"' Awards for 2010 at the Gulf Lipper Fund Awards 2011 were won by Jadwa Investment.
Moreover, Jadwa was given an award on MQ2 Management of Financial Investments rating from Moody's.
The total assets managed by Jadwa Investment att his point stand at SR 7.7 billion.

The purpose of AmIslamic Bank Bhd is to ride on the growth of energy-themed commodities. Meanwhile the bank also wants to protect investors from the big unpredictability of the market with its latest offering,
AmEnergy Islamic Negotiable Instruments of Deposit (NID-i).
This product follows the conduct of oil, soyabean (biodiesel) and sugar (ethanol) and it is programed for two years.
But because the oil supplies are limited, so the merket is vulnerable, worldwide governments and corporations are looking out for alternative energy sources such as biofuels.

CIPE and the Global Corporate Governance Forum published a new guidebook with an accompanying video named Advancing Corporate Governance in the Middle East and North Africa: Stories and Solutions. The purpose is to help bussiness reach a better situation. They speak about self-dealing, lack of accountability and rampant corruption.

They try to proove that it is a good solution to incorporate sound corporate governance practices that assure that proper mechanisms are in place to preserve the core principles of fairness, accountability, responsibility and transparency.

The Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum have the support of Roland Berger not only in consulting but also by being a partner to the Young Global Leaders (YGL) of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The fundamental values of WEF are social responsibility, respect, human rights and human dignity.
YGL is separated in task forces that center on individual topics for the purpose of being more efficiently.

The issuance of the first tranche of TSH Sukuk Musyarakah Sdn Bhd's 11-year RM100 million Islamic Medium Term Notes programme was declared by Danajamin Nasional Bhd.

92 Million Kuwaiti Dinar debt restructuring of First Investment Company was completed with success by Liquidity Management House (LMH).
This was a unique deal between FIC and its creditors, being the first that used Sukuk for the purpose of restructuring a company's existing debt obligations.
The team was made of Emad Al Monayea, Vice Chairman and CEO, Masroor Ahmed Siddiqui, Senior Vice President of Investment Banking, and Mubarak Al Refaei.

Bank Al Jazira's advisors regarding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are Dubai office of Clifford Chance LLP and Al- Jadaan & Partners Law Firm.
IFLR named Clifford Chance the "Saudi Arabian Law Firm of the Year " in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Clifford Chance has a co-operation agreement with Al-Jadaan and Partners Law Firm.

World Halal Forum (WHF) supports the fact that the Socially Acceptable Market Investments (SAMI) Halal Food is thought to become bigger than the Dow Jones Islamic Index (DJII) in terms of size, branding and spin-off products.
Sime Darby Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd and Genting Plantations Bhd. are the biggest Malaysian stocks on the SAMI index.

26 international financial institutions gave Bank Asya a loan, becoming the largest loan ever given to a turkish bank.
Bank Asya’s General Director Abdullah Çelik stated that this loan prooves the trust that international markets have in the Turkish economy and his bank.

Qatar Exchange cut off from the list First Finance Co. Now the list contains only 42 companies.

Morocco plans to authorise first Islamic bonds. Central bank of Marocco wants to allow sukuk.