IslamicFinance.de

The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Alan Yarrow has urged Nigeria to consider all sources of finance as a means for attracting investment. In particular the Mayor during a trip to Nigeria was keen to highlight the City of London as a leading centre for Islamic finance and stated Islamic finance can provide substantial investment for Nigeria. He suggested the North of Nigeria would in particular benefit from Islamic financial products. Yarrow who met with financial sector regulators and operators in Abuja last week, said London had the capacity to help Nigeria to deepen its Islamic financial system.

Shariah-compliant funds in Pakistan say the government’s plan to end a year-long hiatus in local sukuk sales is too little, too late to plug a shortage of assets that has put off their investors. The finance ministry will sell rupee-denominated sukuk once 233.8bn rupees ($2.2bn) of notes mature on November 21. That would be the first offering since it raised 49.5bn rupees in June last year. While Pakistan issued global bonds twice in the past 12 months, it has neglected local investors. A sovereign credit-rating upgrade in June, record foreign-exchange reserves and a narrowing current-account deficit make it an opportune moment to return to the Islamic debt market, after its conventional dollar bond sale in September drew bids for twice the $500mn offered.

The Board of Directors of Alkhabeer Capital has accepted the resignation of Mr. Saleh Mohammed Binladen from his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors, for personal reasons. The board also announced the appointment of Mr. Musaad Mohammad Aldrees in his place as Chairman, effective October 7, 2015. Mr. Binladen said he was stepping down to reduce his broad responsibilities. Mr. Aldrees , a member of the board of Alkhabeer Capital since 2008, will serve as Chairman until the appointment of a new Board and Chairman in January 2016.

Dubai Islamic Bank is exploring an entry into India as it seeks to benefit from the funding needs of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. India presents huge opportunities as an emerging economy because of infrastructure development and growing trade with the Middle East, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Chilwan said. Indians make up nearly a quarter of the U.A.E.’s population, and India is its biggest trading partner, with combined exports and imports of $63.7 billion in 2014. The two countries plan to create a $75 billion fund to invest in Indian infrastructure, according to a joint statement at the end of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.A.E. in August.

The Obama administration has launched its first-ever crowdfunding campaign this week to raise money for Syria’s growing refugee crisis, in a bid to draw the American public into supplementing the U.N. refugee agency’s strained budget. The initiative is also a first of its kind for Silicon Valley crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. As of Wednesday, the second full day of the campaign, donors had raised over $800,000 for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) — enough to cover immediate necessities and a place to sleep for 3,000 people in need, the campaign page says. However, the UNHCR has only received $1.8 billion of the $4.5 billion it has requested from foreign governments for Syrian refugees in 2015.

L’université Paris Dauphine lance, en collaboration avec le cabinet Fidaroc Grant Thornton, l’Executive Master principes et pratiques de la finance islamique au Maroc, à Casablanca. L'occasion aussi de faire le point sur les perspectives de la finance islamique au Maroc et dans le monde. Le choix du Maroc pour lancer cette formation n’est pas dû au hasard. Au contraire, il traduit les atouts et les perspectives de développement de la finance islamique au Maroc. Faïçal Mekouar, président de Fidaroc Grant Thornton a par contre rappelé le niveau non satisfaisant de la bancarisation au Maroc.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has welcomed the progress made by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) with respect to the capitalisation of the banking sector. In the eighth review of Pakistan’s economic performance under a 36-month loan programme of about $6.6 billion, the IMF said the SBP should continue its efforts to bring a number of small banks into compliance with statutory requirements. After the recapitalisation through a rights issue in the only capital adequacy ratio (CAR)-non-compliant bank in July, it noted with satisfaction that all Pakistani banks have now become CAR-compliant. However, five small banks are still operating below the Rs10 billion minimum paid-up capital requirement (MCR).

China’s foreign-exchange reserves fell by a record in the third quarter as the central bank sold dollars to support the yuan after a surprise August 11 devaluation sparked the currency’s steepest slide in two decades. The stockpile plunged by $180 billion in the three months through September to $3.51 trillion. The hoard shrank $43.3 billion in September, less than the $57 billion predicted in a survey, suggesting the pace of central bank intervention has eased. The central bank has this year lowered the proportion of deposits that lenders must lock away in an effort to offset capital outflows and intervention to support the yuan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the City of London on Tuesday pledged to work together to deepen Islamic finance in Nigeria in order to bring financial inclusion to Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims averse to traditional financial system and products. The Lord Mayor of London, Mr. Alderman Yarrow said London with six Islamic banks and another 20 lenders currently offering Islamic financial products and services had the capacity to help Nigeria to deepen its Islamic financial system. Meanwhile, the commission is considering modalities for setting up a Sharia advisory council as a body of experts to advise it on non-interest product applications.

Iran has long had a hard time attracting foreign cash. But with this summer’s historic nuclear deal, foreign investors are finally eyeing the pariah nation. Investors, though, are going in with their eyes open to the numerous obstacles, such as limited company transparency, a small number of outstanding shares for trading, a lack of custodial services and high inflation. Most foreign entities aren’t yet legally allowed to buy shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Still, more foreign buyers are now considering the Iranian equity market because, over the next six to 12 months, they’ll likely be able to access the TSE as the nuclear deal takes effect.

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Mian Muhammad Adrees appreciated the joint collaboration between Pak-Qatar General Takaful Limited (PQGTL) and non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) & Modaraba Association of Pakistan (MAP) while speaking at the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony. He said that it is a milestone of collaboration for promotion of the Islamic financial system. The ceremony was jointly arranged by NBFI&MAP and PQGTL for providing takaful coverage to the members of the association on the basis of Islamic modes.

The Board of Directors of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit ( ICIEC ), a Member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has appointed Mr. Oussama Abdel Rahman Kaissi as Chief Executive Officer of ICIEC. Mr. Oussama Kaissi has over twenty eight years of experience in the insurance and Takaful industry. He is the founding CEO of the National Takaful Company, Watania, had also established and led Abu Dhabi National Takaful from inception till 2010. Graduated in 1987 from Indiana University, USA and having worked in USA, UAE, Bahrain and Lebanon both in conventional and Takaful companies, Mr. Kaissi has got diversified exposure to different markets, cultures and business models.

UAE's “aafaq Center for Research in Islamic Economy” will launch the first ‘Islamic Finance Encyclopedia’ and ‘Islamic Finance Directory’ in Arabic, at the 2015 Global Islamic Economic Summit taking place from October 5 to 6, 2015 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. It is worth noting that “aafaq Center for Research in Islamic Economy” was recently established to provide thematic, multi-disciplinary research on Islamic finance. The ‘Islamic Finance Encyclopedia’ comprises twelve volumes covering all aspects of Islamic Finance, including, Shari’ah Framework of Islamic Finance; Emergence of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs): A Comparative Historical Study with Conventional Financial Institutions; IFIs and Banking Services; Takaful Insurance, among others.

GFH Financial Group (GFH), the Bahrain based financial group, has repaid US$37.5 million to its debt syndicates. These repayments are in addition to US$33 million paid by GFH to its debt holders in 2014, and represents more than 30% of the Group's outstanding facilities. Today, the Group has outstanding debt of US$ 137 million under three facilities to be repaid on an amortized basis through 2018/2019. As of 30 June 2015, the Group's debt to equity ratio stood at only 0.24 underscoring the strength of GFH's balance sheet.

The Islamic Finance Council UK (IFC) and crowdfunding platform Narwi were recognised at this year's Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)- Thomson Reuters Ethical Finance Innovation Challenge Awards (EFICA), while former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Founded in 2005, the IFC is a UK based not-for-profit specialist advisory and development body established to promote and enhance the global Islamic and ethical finance industry. Within the UK, the Council pioneered the Ethical Finance Roundtable (EFRT) series. Narwi is a non-profit Islamic crowdfunding platform which allows donors to support micro-entrepreneurs of their choice.

Across the GCC, public pension funds amount to US$397 billion, representing nearly a quarter of GDP and US$15,000 per national. This is according to EY's GCC Wealth and Asset Management 2015 report - "Fast growth, divergent paths". GCC Governments are relooking at existing models of both public and international pension funds to ensure they are sustainable. The size of GCC pension funds is relatively low, compared with employer-provided pension funds in the UK, for example, where these assets are larger than GDP and funds per individual are nearly four times the GCC average. There will be significant changes in the way GCC pension provision is looked at in the coming years because the current system may find it difficult to cope with the needs of GCC residents.

The Global Islamic Economy Summit, set for the 5-6 October, will heavily stress the importance of financial inclusion to the future of Islamic finance. Financial inclusion is an interesting subject because it has primarily been seen only from the perspective that Islamic finance is able to promote inclusiveness by offering a Shari’ah-compliant offering to people whose exclusion is driven by their reluctance or unwillingness to engage with the conventional financial sector. An infographic from the World Bank in 2013 highlighted the size of the unbanked population estimating it at 2.5 billion people (34 per cent of the global population). That means that while Muslims make up 22 per cent of the world’s population, they account for 46 per cent of the world’s unbanked.

Bitcoin may be becoming the single common currency used by cyber criminals across the European Union, said Europol. In its 2015 internet organised crime threat assessment, it warned about, among other things, money muling and laundering services that required concerted and coordinated international law enforcement action, and that Bitcoin was featuring heavily in many EU law enforcement investigations. Although there is no single common currency used by cybercriminals across the EU, it is apparent that Bitcoin may gradually be taking on that role.

Cobalt Underwriting founder Richard Bishop has talked about why he launched London's first Islamic insurance managing general agent – and why London needs to stay relevant. It was back in 2007, when Richard Bishop was working in general broking, that a chance conversation with a Muslim cleric sewed the seed of a business idea that would grow to become the London market’s first Islamic insurance managing general agent.

Le patron de CIH Bank Ahmed Rahhou a annoncé vouloir se placer sur le créneau de la finance participative. Les banques ont jusqu’à la mi-novembre pour déposer leur demande d’agrément auprès de Bank al Maghrib. Le dossier de CIH Bank est en train d’être finalisé. Le PDG a précisé que cette activité, si elle obtient l’autorisation de la banque centrale, serait menée en partenariat avec une autre banque, sans en préciser le nom. Pour le moment, la BCP et la BMCE ont aussi fait part de leur volonté de se lancer dans le secteur. Des banques étrangères souhaiteraient aussi investir. En ce qui concerne les chiffres du premier semestre 2015 publiés le 21 septembre, la direction de la CIH Bank s’en dit satisfaite.