IslamicFinance.de

Shariah-compliant mutual funds give decent returns in a slightly bearish market.
In India, Taurus Mutual Fund has Taurus Ethical Fund, Benchmark Mutual Fund has Shariah Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme and Tata Mutual Fund has the Tata Select Equity Fund.

Fitch Ratings has updated the Takaful Rating Methodology, a sub-sector criteria report within its Insurance group. There are no substantive changes from the prior version.
This criteria report falls under Fitch's global master criteria report for the insurance industry titled 'Insurance Rating Methodology' which was published in August 2010.

There is the possibility that Senegal will sell its first sukuk with involvement from Citigroup Inc.
The West African nation is considering the bond to strengthen ties with investors and governments in the Middle East.
The funds raised may be used for improvements in roads and energy.

Dubai Women's College announced the names of companies and corporations, which have recently offered financial aid for transportation and laptops needed by limited-income students.
Some of these are: Al Maktoum Foundation with 61 laptops bought, Noor Islamic Bank with 41 laptops.
This shows how important it is to invest in education in order to ensure sustainable development in the country.

Noor Islamic Bank states that it has no plans to merge with another financial institution.
Media reports have circulated in recent days that Emirates Islamic Bank is in talks to buy Dubai Bank and then purchase Amlak.

The United Arab Emirates' central bank is ready to hold Islamic certificate of deposit auctions to help the Gulf Arab state's Islamic banks to manage cash.
The UAE central bank's monetary policy is limited by its dirham peg to the U.S. dollar. It uses CD auctions and repurchase facilities among other tools to regulate liquidity in the banking system.
Islamic finance has 16 percent of the UAE's banking assets, while Pakistan has only 5%.

Lebanon is considering legislation to boost Islamic finance after the industry failed to garner 1 percent of total banking assets.
The central bank is working with a group of local lenders to amend a 2004 law that allowed the establishment of Shariah- compliant banks.
Lebanon is seeking to diversify its banking industry and rebuild the country after the conflict with Israel in 2006 and a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.
The economy grew 9 percent last year and is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to expand another 8 percent this year.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) will transfer most of its mortgage activity to Tamweel after taking a majority stake in the Islamic home finance company.
The move comes as the mortgage company resumes lending for the first time in two years.
Tamweel's board is going to meet tomorrow to discuss the appointment of new members and to approve financial statements for 2008 and last year.

The federal government has achieved 65 percent target of Rs 80 billion. They borrowed through new 3-year Government of Pakistan Ijara Sukuk in its first auction. The State Bank accepted only Rs 51.837 billion bids.
The cut-off margin over benchmark will be zero basis points. The benchmark is 6-month MTB Auction Weighted Average Yield.
Sources in banking sector, are expecting another healthy participation in the second auction to be held on December 13, 2010.

The Islamic Financial Services Board will organize two seminars in December 2010. The two seminars will include:
1) the legal issues in the Islamic financial services industry;
2) the role of Islamic finance in the development of Africa.
The Seminars are open for participation by the IFSB member organisations, as well as the business, legal, and financial community at large.

The Islamic Bank of Thailand plans to issue THB5 billion ($169.15 million) in long-awaited Islamic bonds by the first half of next year if the interest rate environment remains conducive.
In 2011, income contribution from the retail business is expected to rise to 40%-45% of operations and reach 60% in 2012.

In a recently published quarterly report by Kuwait Financial Centre "Markaz", which aims to analyze the performance of over 150 equity funds across the region, GCC markets were positive in the third quarter as all markets saw gains following a lackluster summer and slow Ramadan month. The Dubai World debt issue was resolved with creditors coming on board for the restructuring.
Fund managers continue to favor Saudi Arabia, with an allocation of 42% though down from 45% in June 2010.

Kumpulan Takaful Malaysia may consider getting "intellectual capital" from foreign partners.
Mohamed Hassan said Takaful Malaysia was adequately capitalised but it could use some intellectual capital such as technical support, especially in the finance area.
The Indonesian operation contributed about five per cent to the total revenue but has potential in terms of growth.

Sabana Shari'ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust, or Sabana REIT, Tuesday filed its prospectus with Singapore's central bank for an initial public offering to raise about $541 million.
Singapore has been pushing for the development of Islamic finance in the city state, encouraging companies to offer a range of Shariah-compliant products including bonds and other investment products such as REITs.
Sabana REIT's initial portfolio will include properties in Singapore that have no connection to activities and products such as gambling, alcohol or pork.
Sabana REIT's initial portfolio comprises 15 industrial properties located across Singapore with an aggregate gross floor area of about 3.29 million square feet.

Currently three Islamic financial institutions exists with a market share of 15 %: El Baraka Bank, Salem Banque and Salama Assurance. The figures are quoted by Hideur Nacer, secretary general of El Baraka, saying that the sector is about Dinar 100 bn annually, 15 % of the private market and 1.5 % of the public sector market.

Two foreign entities, Abu Dhabi Islamic and Haider Islam are said looking to enter the Algerian market. Main obstacle is supposedly the partnership rules in regulation (49-51 %) and high capital requirements of Euro 100 mn.

North east company International Innovative Technologies (IIT), UK, issued a Sukuk. The 4-year, USD 10 mn musharaka sukuk – small by international capital markets standards – was placed privately with Millennium Private Equity and regulated by Dubai Financial Services Authority.

Bankers in Islamic finance are increasingly outsourcing sharia supervision due to a lack of scholars in the industry, but critics say this is making the sector even less transparent and slowing its development.
Critics say growth and product innovation is being further stifled by the limited number of top scholars available to join the sharia boards of Islamic banks, some sitting on up to 80 boards.
Instead of maintaining their own costly sharia boards with prominent scholars, bankers are increasingly using consultancy firms that directly deal with the scholars.

Bahrain-based Tharawat Investment House has distributed more than nine per cent of sukuk profits for its key fund.
The Islamic investment, which was regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, has announced the distribution of profits for Tharawat Sukuk Fund in excess of 9pc, which became due last month for the first six-month period from February to September.
The announcement by Tharawat of the distribution of profits on time comes against a backdrop of ongoing fluctuations on the world and regional markets, reflecting the strength of the company's performance, its portfolio and sound strategy pursued by the portfolio for generating high returns to its investors.
The fund buys sukuk on the preliminary and secondary capital markets.

Tharawat Family Business Forum is a non-profit organization representing the first Arabian network for family businesses. Tharawat bases its activities around the four main pillars networking, research, education, and advocacy, thereby catering to the heart of family business needs. The forum, founded in 2006, has the clear vision of becoming the prime knowledge resource, research hub and networking forum for family-owned and -controlled firms in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Tharawat members are some of the largest and oldest family businesses in the region and the network accepts members upon application. While hosting activities across the entire Arab world, Tharawat has its headquarters situated in Dubai, UAE.

Banks’ gold savings accounts are expected to continue to gain popularity in anticipation of an uptrend in gold price and investors’ desire to diversify their investment portfolio in the current uncertain global economic conditions.
In FY10, the number of gold savings account and investment value recorded an average monthly growth of about 11%.
New entrants to the gold savings account market Kuwait Finance House (M) Bhd (KFH) and United Overseas Bank (M) Bhd (UOB) see good prospects for the product.
KFH chief executive officer Jamelah Jamaluddin said the KFH Gold Account-i which was launched nationwide on April 29 had been very well accepted.
Jamelah expects the demand for gold to hold at current levels, given the public’s heightened awareness on its availability and affordability.