IslamicFinance.de

Although efforts have been made over the past twenty years to bring Islamic banking into India — a country that has more Muslims than Pakistan — as yet the Reserve Bank of India and its master, the Union Finance Ministry, has not given permission for the same. The reason is simple. Across the financial establishment in India, the influence of US and EU financial interests is overpowering.
Several senior civil servants have their close relatives working in such institutions, and therefore accept the advice given by them. Certainly, banks in foreign countries will not want the Indian government to clear the way for the establishment of Islamic banking centres, for that may result in funds flowing from Zurich, London, Frankfurt and New York (all major “Islamic” banking locations) to Mumbai or Kochi. Acting on cue, the monetary and finance authorities in India have continued to block access to Islamic banking avenues, thereby denying millions of observant Muslims in India a chance to keep their assets in safety.

Historically, Bermuda has been at the forefront of the growth and success of the global, conventional insurance and reinsurance market. However, interest has been sparked in the relatively new and growing market of Shari'ah-compliant takaful and retakaful, the insurance and reinsurance of the Islamic world.
The immense wealth held in the Middle East and North African region bodes well for global growth in takaful and retakaful businesses, as well as pointing to a growing need for Bermuda service providers to support such opportunities. It is widely accepted that the conventional insurance model is incompatible with Islamic beliefs – consequently, Shar'iah-compliant structures have been developed as a way for Muslim clients to share risk.
Bermuda is the world's leading domicile for captives so it makes sense that there are opportunities for Middle East corporations to form takaful/retakaful captives on the basis of mutual indemnification of losses. There are also opportunities to develop retakaful and retro-takaful entities for the US market due to Bermuda's prime global location.

Allen & Overy (A&O) has bolstered its Paris arm with the hire of a tax team from CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre.
Jean-Yves Charriau joined A&O as a partner last week (1 October) from Bureau Francis Lefebvre, where he was also a partner, with a team including counsel Sophie Maurel and associate David Sorel.
Charriau, who specialises in advising real estate companies and foreign funds on their real estate investment transactions, becomes the third partner in the firm's Paris tax practice. He was previously at Bureau Francis Lefebvre for seven years prior to which he spent a decade at Ernst & Young.

Leading banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain will come to Washington D.C. on the 8th of October 2010 when the Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB) hosts an important reception at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
The reception is in honour of Bahrain's delegation to the IMF/World Bank meetings. The delegation will be led by H.E. Shaikh Ahmed B?n Mohammed Al-Khalifa, the Minister of Finance, H.E. Mr Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Mr Abdulkarim Bucheery, CEO of BBK and BAB's Chairman.
The financial community of the Kingdom of Bahrain has shown the depth of its support for the event through sponsorship, which includes Ahli United Bank, BBK Bank Muscat International, Gulf International Bank, Investcorp, Kuwait Finance House, National Bank of Bahrain and United Gulf Bank, together with the Economic Development Board of Bahrain.

This latest transaction completed in collaboration with GSH Kuwait, follows the acquisition of two earlier student accommodation properties in Loughborough and Liverpool last April, and brings the total value of Gatehouse Bank’s real estate portfolio in excess of £150 million.
The property has been purchased at a net initial yield of 6.73%, and will deliver an average cash yield of 9.3% per annum, with the university guaranteeing the term time rent and the developer, Berkeley Homes plc guaranteeing the summer vacation rent for the first five years.
The property, developed by Berkeley Homes, is subject to a Nominations Agreement with the Oxford Brookes University. The UK’s largest operator of privately managed student accommodation, CRM, will provide day to day management.

Corporate sukuks by UK organisations are expected in the coming few months following the recent launching of the first corporate sukuk out of United Kingdom by Gateshead-based International Innovative Technologies, or IIT.
A major GCC-based sukuk arranger, which is reportedly working on a corporate sukuk issuance for a UK healthcare company for the last year, hopes to launch the issuance in September. A London-based Islamic bank is also working on a sukuk issuance for a UK client which is near to being finalised. Tom Wilkinson, chairman of IIT, is confident that there is potential for other UK companies to access Islamic finance including sukuk as an alternative source of funding.
The sukuk issue was placed privately with Millennium Private Equity Ltd, leading private equity firm based in the Dubai International Financial Centre and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. The sukuk is essentially a convertible sukuk, whereby Millennium Private Equity Ltd can convert the sukuk into equity.

As part of its efforts to promote Islamic finance around the world, the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) secretary-general Dr Mohamad Nedal Alchaar, and the Grand Mufti of the Shura Council of Russian Muftis, met in Moscow with the Russian Association of Experts in Islamic Finance.
The purpose of the meeting was to enhance the prospects of the development of Islamic financial institutions and products in Russia and the application of AAOIFI standards to regulate them.
Dr Alchaar highlighted the importance of establishing a suitable legal and regulatory environment to help accommodate and promote the Islamic financial industry in Russia, noting that the Islamic sukuks in particular have a promising market in the Russian economy.

Bank of London and The Middle East, the London based wholesale, Sharia'a compliant bank, today reported a healthy return to profitability for the first half of 2010.
BLME's results were spurred by the:
* strong performance by the Markets division, particularly the management of the Bank's investment portfolio and capital;
* continued top quartile performance of the US Dollar Income Fund;
* cash recoveries from assets that were subject to credit impairment provisions in 2009; and
* strengthening of the Corporate Banking team, resulting in a steady acceleration in earnings and improved contributions from the three financing areas: Property, Leasing and Trade Finance.

Islamic Bank of Britain has joined forces with the Alliance of Mortgage Packagers and Distributors (AMPD) to offer the full range of its Sharia-compliant mortgages. IBB’s Home Purchase Plan (HPP) allows those consumers seeking a mortgage, home finance without the use of interest.
Islamic Bank of Britain’s Home Purchase Plan (HPP) will give AMPD’s members an alternative mortgage product which is transparent and easy to use, competitive enough to square up to conventional mortgages and has the leading edge of being an ethical product.

With the Islamic finance industry worth an estimated $1 trillion and growing rapidly, it is perhaps no surprise that a number of Asia-Pacific nations are among a growing band of countries worldwide to signal their intention to carve out a larger share of the market.
Countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, along with Hong Kong, have set their sights on becoming hubs for Islamic finance, where investments are made according to Islamic principles.
While their sectors may be at varying stages of development, they are facing a common predicament: a shortage of professionals skilled in Islamic finance.
Education institutions around the Asia-Pacific region, like their counterparts in the Middle East and Europe, are increasingly seeking to fill that gap by adding Islamic finance specialization to their master’s programs in business administration and elsewhere.

Allfunds Bank, the business-to-business fund platform, has launched an Islamic Services Unit to comply with Sharia principles. The company, jointly owned by the Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo groups, offers over 80 sharia-compliant funds from asset management firms based in Luxembourg, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The unit has a fatwa endorsed by the Sharia'h Board of Amanie Dubai, a specialist Islamic consultancy firm, making it the first sharia-compliant platform.
Allfunds said its clients would have direct access to the largest available range of Islamic funds and it would take further opportunities to expand the service, such as setting up a dedicated website for the sector.

Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME), the totally-Shariah based bank, is currently working on the development of a Shariah-compliant Absolute Return Fund. The bank, which has its own Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB), has been doing quite well since opening just three years ago and has been providing Islamic investment and finance services to the 15 million Muslim population in Western Europe, as well as customers in Turkey. Nigel Denison, director and head of asset management, explained that the bank's customer base includes people of all faiths who want a trustworthy place to bank. The bank currently has predominantly Kuwaiti shareholders and would someday like to build a presence in the Kingdom.

Steuerliche Würdigung im nationalen und internationalen Kontext

Der Markt Islamic Finance wächst rasant und umfasst bereits heute ein erhebliches Anlagevolumen. Demgegenüber besteht ein großer Kapitalbedarf in der europäischen, speziell auch in der deutschen Realwirtschaft ebenso wie ein Bedarf an Investoren.

Bei der Umsetzung von Islamic-Finance-Vertragsmodellen kann die Besteuerung im Einzelfall eine ausschlaggebende Rolle spielen. Daher erläutert die Autorin in diesem Buch für ausgewählte schariakonforme Finanzierungs- und Anlageformen zunächst die Scharia-Rahmenbedingungen der jeweiligen Vertragsmodelle aus deutscher rechtlicher, ertragsteuerlicher und verkehrsteuerlicher Sicht. Die steuerlichen Fragestellungen werden anhand von Beispielen im grenzüberschreitenden Corporate Bereich im Schnittpunkt von deutschem internationalem Steuerrecht und ausländischem Steuerrecht der weiteren beteiligen Staaten verdeutlicht.

Inhalt

* Einleitung
* Grundzüge von Islamic-Finance-Vertragsmodellen
- eigenkapitalbasierte („Musharaka“ und „Mudaraba“),
- fremdkapitalbasierte („Murabaha“ und „Tawarruq“) sowie

ResearchGATE is the largest social network for academic research globally. Dedicated social profiles of researchers allow to enter academic careers, published articles in journals and books, announce fields of research for international exchange just to name a few of the features.

IslamicFinance.de took another effort to create a dedicated group and invite researchers globally to use this platform and foster research in Islamic finance. The last academic initiative taken was to sponsor and start a full fledged platform for the Islamic Finance WIKI, the online encyclopedia.

Researchers are invited to participate in these initiatives.

Please visit:
http://www.researchgate.net/group/Islamic_Finance/

On 21st of September this year the meeting took place between Dr. Muhammad Nedal Alchaar Secretary general of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), and the Russian association of experts in Islamic financing .
On the meeting the experts exchanged their opinions concerning prospects of development of Islamic financial institutions and products in Russia, application of AAOIFI standards in the field of accounting, audit and norms of Shariah, and also actual world tendencies of the young industry.
Doctor Alchaar has informed that now the AAOIFI members consist of 220 Islamic financial institutions from 46 countries of the world and informed about the basic aspects and complexities of development of the Islamic finance in separate countries, in particular, in the UK, France and the USA.

Poverty is a complex issue and needs to be tackled on a range of fronts including, but not limited to, improving economic growth. Poverty remains one of the big challenges to socio-economic development of majority of developing countries, especially in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia. Besides, this phenomenon has brought about problems such as illiteracy, malnutrition, disease and even crime. Global food crisis further worsened the already precarious conditions of poor people in these countries.

To cope with the bane of poverty, the OIC has to reinvigorate its machinery for economic growth and cooperation among member countries through comprehensive mobilization of the resources, within and outside the OIC community. A new approach to economic cooperation was, therefore fashioned out to ensure that all stakeholders are sensitized on the need for the accelerated transformation of the economies of OIC Member-States and the welfare of their peoples.

Islamic mortgages may be regarded as a niche market but they offer opportunities for brokers who work close to large Muslim populations, especially to those who understand the products and the sector.

As with all areas of lending finance for Islamic mortgages suffered in line with the market downturn. A lack of confidence, funding and a reassessment of risk with lower LTV criteria have all contributed to consolidation in what was a growing area of mortgage broking and lending.

Alburaq was a dedicated resource to brokers referring clients to Alburaq’s team in London. Islamic Bank of Britain offers training to ensure a full understanding of the market and there are competitive processing fees for packaged or introduced cases.

The important thing to remember is that this sector is growing through difficult times. Brokers will find this sector interesting and it will provide them with a loyal client base who will be keen to recommend knowledgeable and sensitive advisers to members of their community.

T'azur Company b.s.c., (T'azur), a regional Takaful (Islamic Insurance) company headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain, announced today the signing of an Islamic re-insurance agreement with Hannover Retakaful, the Bahrain-based Islamic subsidiary of Hannover-Re, one of the world's leading re-insurers with premiums in excess of EUR10bn. T'azur fully Sharia-compliant re-insurance panel is led by Hanover Retakaful and also includes other highly rated Islamic reinsurance companies such as ACR Re, Takaful Re, MNRB and Best Re.

UK insurance giant Legal & General has signed a partnership with Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) to make two Islamic home finance products available to financial intermediaries. The Home Purchase Plan (HPP) is IBB’s flagship Islamic mortgage product and is a mortgage alternative, which offers home finance without the use of interest. The Shari’ah-compliant product allows customers to purchase their home in partnership with the bank on a leasing (Ijara) and diminishing partnership (Musharaka) agreement. Islamic Bank of Britain pioneered Shari’ah-compliant retail banking in the UK and has launched a wide range of products, including the Home Purchase Plan (the halal mortgage alternative) Current Accounts, Savings Accounts and Personal Finance. Several of the bank’s products remain unique in the UK retail market.

As Russia's 20 million Muslims observe Ramadan, the country's banks are beginning to wake up to the growing opportunities offered by Islamic banking. Last summer VTB Capital opened an office in Dubai. The bank also plans to launch other Islamic projects, investing in Russian property together with the Sultan of Oman's State General Reserve Fund. However, there are still major obstacles to developing Islamic finance, including a lack of banking legislation that meets Islamic rules.