IslamicFinance.de

The catalog of 6,500 numismatic pieces – coins, glass weights, dies, medals, etc. - is the third major catalog of Islamic numismatic material held in the Egyptian National Library, formerly the Khedivial Library. The catalog differs from its predecessors in a number of ways. First, it is a new catalog in that inscriptions had to be read from the digital images which were taken under difficult and rushed conditions and not from the actual objects. Second, inscriptions in Arabic are included in this electronic catalog. Inscriptions in European languages and references are the work of Dr. Norman D. Nicol from the 1982 catalog of the collection.

The so-called "halal tourism" market was once seen as a niche revenue stream, limited to pilgrimages. But now there's a movement in the tourism industry to widen the "halal tourism" market to cater to Muslim travelers worldwide, particularly those from wealthy Gulf Arab states. Travelers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman will spend $64 billion traveling this year and are expected to spend $216 billion by 2030, according to a 2014 study for the travel tech company Amadeus. The study found that, on average, a traveler from these countries spends around $9,900 per trip outside the Gulf. For Emiratis, the figure reaches $10,400.

The 2014 Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) survey estimates that 93% of Pakistani adults are financially excluded as only 7% of the respondents reported to having a bank account, while registered accounts with other financial institutions were negligibly low. A more promising statistic is that of mobile phone ownership, as the FII survey finds that 54% of Pakistani adults own a mobile phone. This high proliferation of mobile phones is considered by many to be an opportunity for the financially excluded to attain financial inclusion through Mobile banking. However, various products such as loans, insurance, and interest on savings are not offered by mobile money companies yet.

Financial inclusion is one of many the areas that caught the new public authorities’ attention in Tunisia. A decree-law was passed in November 2011 that authorized the establishment of credit institutions dedicated to low-income people. It also created a modern regulatory agency, the microfinance supervisory authority. Beyond micro-lending, the Ministry of Finance now aims at modernizing the entire financial sector in Tunisia by 2020. Such a plan is timely and provides hope for further financial deepening. In this regard, a recent snapshot on financial inclusion completed by CGAP and the World Bank provides insights.

Qatar has become the world's richest country per capita measured by the value of its built environment according to the latest Global Built Asset Wealth Index published by Arcadis. Qatar has become a global leader, toppling Singapore as the most asset rich country per capita, with built assets of US$198,000 for every citizen. The index, which was compiled for Arcadis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), calculates the value of all the buildings and infrastructure that contribute to economic productivity in 32 countries, which collectively make up 87% of global GDP. Total built asset wealth globally now stands at an estimated US$218 trillion, which is the equivalent to US$30,700 per person alive today.

The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) hosted a Market Consultative Meeting on Islamic Credit Support Arrangement in association with the International Islamic Financial Markets (IIFM) and its Islamic hedging joint-partner International Swaps & Derivatives Association (ISDA) in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Credit Support Arrangement (CSA) is one of the key documentations for risk management where counter-parties transactional risk is managed through collateral and margin maintenance mechanism. The Islamic CSA will be developed under the already published ISDA/IIFM Tahawwut Master Agreement for Islamic hedging transactions.

Saudi Arabia would be open to relaxing its rules on foreigners investing directly in its stock market to help it get included in global indices, the chairman of the Saudi financial-markets regulatory agency, the Capital Market Authority, said. In his first interview with international media since his appointment in January, Mohammed al-Jadaan also defended the limited trading so far by qualified foreign investors (QFIs) and noted the kingdom was already seeing wider benefits from having direct foreign access to its $470 billion stock market. On June 15, the Saudi stock exchange, the Tadawul, became one of the last major emerging markets to let foreigners buy shares directly.

Halalbooking.com, an online booking platform in the halal tourism sector, said it was targeting growth, with plans to launch a $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) initial public offering (IPO) in three years, according to Elnur Seyidli, chairman of the company’s board. The UK-based company is still looking at global stock markets for the IPO but said it will either be in the UK or the US. Halalbooking has been growing to three times its initial size per year (300 per cent). The chairman said that the company was looking to grow its consumer base to half a million to a million per year. This will be achieved through adding more hotels to the website. He added that he expected growth in the next few years to come from Muslim countries. Halalbooking is also looking to capitalise on the GCC as a source market.

Despite a growing Muslim population across the world, the Halal tourism sector is still “completely under-serviced” with growing urgency for quicker investments. According to Andy Buchanan, event manager of the World Halal Travel Summit, there are many untapped markets where supply is low including India, China, and Europe. Halal tourism packages must adhere to Islamic beliefs and practices, which include offering Halal food and non-alcoholic drinks, and having separate swimming pools and spa facilities for men and women. Today, the sector is worth $140 billion a year, with the figure expected to reach $250 billion by 2020, marking a 6.5 per cent annual growth rate.

Proper corporate governance practices in financial institutions should provide added value by enhancing the protection of depositor and investor rights, facilitating access to finance, reducing the cost of capital, improving operational performance, and increasing institutions’ soundness against external shocks. Ensuring strong corporate governance standards is thus essential to the stability and health of all financial institutions, worldwide. Good governance is an important priority for Islamic finance. Thus, the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) and the World Bank’s Finance and Markets Global Practice recently organized the conference on “Corporate Governance for Islamic Financial Institutions: Lessons from Recent Global Developments” in Jordan.

From Takaful Emarat’s perspective, a number of factors in the Mena region have contributed to a relatively weak culture of financial planning and saving among our citizens and expatriate populations. However, education programmes addressing the importance of financial planning in the region are required to highlight the need for both citizens and expatriates to plan and save in order to generate income post-retirement, provide for family education and ensure comprehensive life and health cover is in place, for example. This situation is changing with the growing popularity of takaful as a means to plan for unexpected financial or medical emergencies.

R&A Telecommunication Group Bhd's major subsidiary, R&A Telecommunication Sdn Bhd (RASB), has been served a writ and a statement of claim by Maybank Islamic Bhd for defaulting a loan payment of RM30.54 million. R&A said it plans to address the issue via a regularisation plan. The filing of the writ and statement of claim is a result of the outstanding amount for various Islamic financing facilities granted by the plaintiff including murabahah cashlines and Islamic tradeliness facilities, R&A said. The financial of operational impact of the writ and statement of claim on the group will be severe, it said, adding that it will severely impact the group's cash position.

OCBC Al-Amin Bank Bhd has opened its first Islamic Premier Banking Centre at the newly opened branch, the 11th, at Kota Kemuning in Shah Alam. The move will cater to high net worth individuals seeking sophisticated Islamic banking products and services. With the opening of the first Islamic Premier Banking centre here in Kota Kemuning, the bank hopes to raise the bar in Islamic banking products and services for the high net worth segment. The bank's inaugural Premier Banking Centre includes a private customer discussion area, parking, safe deposit boxes and full-time premier banking tellers. Previously, the only available premier banking centres for Islamic banking were those shared with conventional banking entities.

Despite the UN’s ambitious claims, all the indications are that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do not have the potential to “free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want” or “heal and secure our planet”. On the contrary, the ‘new agenda for development’ fails to address the root causes of today’s interconnected global crises, perpetuates a false narrative about poverty reduction, and reinforces an unsustainable economic paradigm that is inherently incapable of reducing the true scale of human deprivation by 2030. There are many reasons to question the entire sustainable development initiative and the political-economic context within which it will be implemented.

Sunrise Properties has secured a 515 million dirham ($140.22 million) Islamic loan for the development of a luxury hotel project, banking group Emirates NBD, the main arranger of the deal, said. Emirates NBD, joined by Doha Bank, are providing the money to finance the Emerald Palace Kempinski Hotel project on Dubai's Palm Jumeirha group of islands. The tenure and margin on the murabaha-structured loan were not disclosed. Bank lending to real estate sector remains buoyant, with credit to the construction and real estate sector totalling 216.2 billion dirhams in the second quarter of this year from 210.6 billion dirhams in the year ago period.

Family businesses in the GCC have made significant progress in putting corporate governance structures in place but are lagging when it comes to strict implementation — something that could eventually challenge their very existence, a study by the Gulf Family Business Council (GFBC) and McKinsey & Company has revealed. The study, which surveyed the largest GCC family-owned businesses, showed that only 33 per cent of GCC-based family businesses have fully implemented governance systems. The study recommends that the ‘rules of the game’ should be clearly stated to the next generation as early as possible to allow for effective succession planning and transition of leadership.

Saudi Arabia’s NCB Capital (NCBC) has launched a new AlAhli Tadawul platform designed to empower clients with more efficient tools and all the support and information they need to stay informed of promising investment opportunities available. The new reports and smart analytical tools include free features that automatically analyze the market and highlight promising opportunities. The availability of various trading channels enables traders to trade and keep track of stocks at any time and from any place. Additionally, the TeleTrading Service enables users to trade anywhere, even without an Internet connection. Live up-to-the-second stock prices are provided to all traders free of charge.

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has announced a significant increase in the number of Islamic Finance qualifications taken in the Arabian Peninsula over the last 12 months. CISI recorded 111 of its Islamic Finance Qualification exams taken between August 2014 and August 2015, compared to 82 taken in the same period in 2013 -2014. The UAE was the country which saw the biggest increase in people undertaking the exams, with a 35 per cent increase from August 2014 to August 2015. As Dubai invests in the Islamic finance industry, this will accelerate the sector’s development in the rest of the region.

Aiad Al Khatib, head of corporate regulatory and scientific affairs at Nestle, said that standards for what is halal, or permissible under sharia law, need to be aligned, clarified and simplified to allow manufacturers and exporters greater access to markets. Halal standards are being produced by several bodies including government-linked organizations, private organizations, independent halal certification bodies as well as national, regional and international bodies. Global Muslim spending on food and beverages rose 4.3% to around USD 1.128 trillion in 2014 from a year earlier, accounting for 16.7% of the total global food and beverage expenditure. The halal food and drinks market is expected to grow to USD 1.585 trillion by 2020.

One of the biggest issues plaguing efforts to help the millions of refugees flowing out of Syria is a lack of funding. In September, the World Food Program (WFP) had to drop one-third of Syrian refugees from its food-voucher program, including nearly 300,000 in Jordan alone. Abeer Etefa, WFP regional spokesperson for the Middle East, said the agency needed $236 million to keep its food-voucher program afloat through November. One way of remedying the issue may lie in bond markets. In a move that could potentially raise tens of billions in economic assistance to the region, the United Nations, World Bank, and Islamic Development Bank have unveiled a plan to issue bonds.