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Arcapita Group and Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding sold their ownership stake in Abu Dhabi-based NAS Neuron Health Services. The two companies partnered to acquire an equity stake in NAS United Healthcare Services in 2017. Umair Nizami is the Managing Director of Neuron, as well as CEO of Dubai Wing. NAS Neuron is one of the largest private TPAs of medical claims in the GCC region.

The government of Pakistan is set to raise Rs150 billion with the reopening of its existing five-year Ijarah Sukuk issuance, maturing in July 2025. The steps of reopening of existing Sukuk is similar as that of issuance of a completely new Sukuk. The Sukuk was originally issued last month. Pre-auction target was set at Rs60 billion for fixed rental rate Sukuk for August-October. The target for the variable rental rate Sukuk has been fixed at Rs90 billion. For the subsequent period, the rental rate for the reopened Sukuk would be the same as that of the first issue. Similarly, the maturity of the reopened Sukuk would also be the same as the first issue.

ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing and shariah-compliant investing share similar objectives in that they promote stewardship and societal value creation. However, the two strategies are often viewed as distinctly separate approaches by investors. According to the president of asset management firm Saturna, Shahariah Shaharudin, bringing together the two investing methodologies can do much to invigorate the Islamic asset management industry. As both ESG and shariah-compliant funds are considered defensive asset classes, they performed relatively well during the recent market downturn triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bitcoin Association has joined the inaugural Islamic Fintech Week 2020 as a sponsor and ecosystem partner. The three-day event will bring together stakeholders, regulators and innovators to chart the future of financial technology in the Islamic world. This year’s IFW2020 will be hosted in Malaysia from September 7-10. It will feature a themed series of panel debates, roundtable sessions and masterclasses. Topics on the agenda for the virtual event will include the role of Shariah in Islamic fintech, how Malaysia can become a global finance hub, fintech’s role in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the social impact of Muslim women in finance. Digital currencies and blockchain will also feature heavily in the event, with various guests set to address how they can be integrated into the Islamic finance industry.

The UAE's first exchange traded fund tracking a Sharia-compliant index began trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market. Bourses in the the region are ramping up efforts to diversify their product offerings to attract more foreign direct investment. Chimera Capital listed its Chimera S&P UAE Shariah ETF, which is designed to replicate the S&P UAE Domestic Shariah Liquid 35/20 Capped Index. The Chimera S&P UAE Shariah ETF is structured and built by S&P and monitored by a Shariah board that meets regularly to review and re-balance the index quarterly. Currently the index has ten securities across the two UAE markets. The fund has a total market capitalisation of Dh234 billion and assets under management of Dh934,839.

As coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt businesses in Kenya, the Muslim community has been urged to take advantage of financial institutions offering low bank charges to jump-start their businesses. Islamic finance expert Khalfan Abdallah has urged the government to rethink how to accommodate Muslims in various financial support programmes such as Youth and Women Fund. Mr. Abdallah said the government should borrow a leaf from Momentum Credit Micro Finance which has started offering Sharia compliance loans to Muslims using logbooks as collateral. The official said to bail out Muslims during these hard times, such affordable credit facilities which are sharia compliance are required.

Kenanga Capital Islamic (KCI) has collaborated with a financing company Bay Group Holdings to enhance digitisation in the local factoring market. The collaboration will introduce a maiden local solution to the local factoring market through merging private and public sectors under a platform to tap into an underserved market, which is expected to grow fivefold from its current RM20 billion value. The partnership with Bay is expected to advance KCI’s position in the factoring market, reduce its overall operational costs as well as improve its efficiencies. Registered and regulated by the Securities Commission of Malaysia in 2016, Bay provides innovative digital solutions through its supply chain management platform and Bay P2P financing platform.

The Malaysian government has launched the RM500 million Sukuk Prihatin which aims to raise funds from the public and corporates who wish to help contribute towards the Covid-19 Fund. Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the fund would be used to modernise telecommunications network in the rural area to help students get access to education through digital channels. It is also to provide further assistance to the micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as the healthcare sector's research on infectious diseases. The minimum subscription for the first investment is RM500 with an interest of 2% per annum for a tenure of two years. After the tenure ends, subscribers or investors can opt to fully donate the interest to Covid-19 Fund and will be given a tax relief depending on the size of the donation.

Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and Islamic Finance news (IFN) have announced their collaboration to provide insights and analysis for Islamic finance worldwide. IFN readers will gain access to Moody's exclusive content covering Islamic finance, ranging from sukuk issuance trends in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to the latest trends in Islamic banking. Moody's is a global integrated risk assessment firm that empowers organizations to make better decisions. IFN is the leading Islamic finance news and solutions provider in the world, housing the largest pool of Islamic finance-related articles and coverage.

Dear Reader,

Following up on my earlier post on CFD and wether those are halal and why not: http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/9330 here a follow up with some disclosed data. The regulators asking CFD provider to disclose how many retail investor loose money. The exact rules and definitions you find here:

https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/library/2018-esma35-43-13...

In a quick web search for "of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs" that number is between 55.2% and 83%:

https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en/learn-cfd-trading/what-are-cfds

55.2% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with Blackwell Global Investments (UK) Limited.

https://blackwellglobal.com/choosing-right-leverage-cfd-trading/

83% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

https://libertex.com/blog/what-contract-difference-cfd

79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

https://www.xtb.com/en/learn-to-trade/what-is-cfd-trading

Asia Pacific Investment Bank (APIB) aims to cooperate with domestic financial institutions to promote the internationalisation of the Islamic finance industry. APIB CEO Chris Wang is confident that APIB could be the bridge that connects Malaysia and China. In light of the US-China trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic, the government is facing a critical challenge in leveraging the country’s position. Wang said APIB could help the government achieve the goal by making the country’s Islamic finance industry more dynamic. APIB is an offshore Islamic investment bank, established in January 2015 with the approval of the Labuan Financial Services Authority, headquartered in Labuan and its main operating office based in Kuala Lumpur, with representative offices in Shanghai and Nanjing, China.

Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB).
Dubai Islamic Bank's A3 long-term Issuer ratings are derived from the bank's ba2 standalone baseline credit assessment and a five notch systemic support uplift based on Moody's view of a very high likelihood of government support from United Arab Emirates (rated Aa2), in case of need. DIB's ba2 BCA reflects the bank's solid profitability, deposit-funded balance sheet, and healthy liquidity reserves. These strengths are moderated by Moody's expectation of downside pressure on the bank's solvency in the 12-18 months on the back of lower oil prices, reduced investor confidence and the coronavirus-induced disruption.

Islamic Fintech Week 2020 organizers revealed Bitcoin Affiliation as its ecosystem accomplice and sponsor. IFW2020 is hosted with the theme “Envisioning Islamic FinTechFuture” and is ready to be a platform for international stakeholders, regulators, tech startups and the Islamic finance fraternity. Bitcoin Affiliation is the Switzerland-based international trade group that works to advance enterprise on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The week will be a sequence of discussions, roundtable classes, debates and hopes to showcase a brand new expertise for on-line attendees to deal with native and international challenges and uplift humanity.

Credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service expects Indonesia’s sukuk issuance to increase to US$27 billion this year from $16 billion last year. Lead analyst Thaddeus Best said on Tuesday that he expected Indonesia’s sukuk issuance to increase by about 68.75% as the government unveiled a Rp 695.2 trillion (US$47.3 billion) stimulus package to fight the pandemic. To help fund the package, the government is planning to raise Rp 900.4 trillion in the second half of this year to cover for a widening budget deficit of 6.34% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year. The option-adjusted spread of Indonesia’s US dollar-denominated government sukuk had fallen to almost 150 basis points (bps) as of July compared to its highest spread of 400 bps in March.

Somalia's Sombank selected the Temenos Islamic Banking solution in the cloud to accelerate its digital transformation and create innovative products to increase access to financial services in Somalia. Sombank will implement the full front-to-back Temenos Islamic Banking platform, which combines the capabilities of Temenos Infinity and Temenos Transact. Temenos’ cloud-native technology will allow Sombank to create innovative digital products and offer lower cost services. Currently, Sombank serves customers via branch and online network and representative offices throughout Somalia. The bank will use the Temenos Infinity digital front office to create a unified customer experience for all financial and non-financial services across all channels.

According to Malaysian Rating Corp (MARC) chief ratings officer Rajan Paramesran, domestic corporate sukuk are in a better position than during the global financial crisis or the Asian financial crisis. Going into the current crisis, corporate sukuk had relatively stable cashflow metrics. He added that government-supported transport projects, state-backed water infrastructure projects and solar power plant projects have recently been and will be key sources for sukuk issuances. Rajan said the catalyst for the growth in the Islamic debt market continues to be government incentive on susuk issuances such as tax reduction. Based on MARC’s data, corporate sukuk issuance by the end of July 2020 amounted to RM34.3 billion, which is the lowest to date over the last 10 years and dampened by the Covid-19 pandemic. In a separate report, Moody’s said Malaysian Islamic banks are expected to remain resilient amid the Covid-19 outbreak, underpinned by heavy concentration on retail financing.

The Malaysia-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) successfully conducted an auction for a total issuance of $1.06bn short-term A-1 rated Sukuk in three series. The three series have been priced by the market as follows: USD400m of 1-month tenor at 0.33%; USD460m of 3-month tenor at 0.45%; and USD 200m of 7-month tenor at 0,58%, respectively. The tender resulted in significant demand from Middle Eastern, Asian and African investors, with an orderbook that closed in excess of USD1.72bn. ILM is an international organisation established by various central banks to develop and issue short-term Shari’ah-compliant financial instruments. The current members of the IILM Governing Board are the central banks and monetary agencies of Indonesia, Qatar, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Turkey, the UAE, as well as the multilateral Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector.

The College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar FinTech Hub (QFTH). Through the agreement, CIS and QFTH will engage and contribute actively to the development of the financial technology (FinTech) industry in Qatar. QFTH represents a range of stakeholders in the industry from early-stage firms to large financial services companies and relevant service providers, who stand to benefit from CIS' insights and research. The Fintech Hackathon, which was launched in June 2020, is one of the pioneering areas of collaboration between CIS and QFTH.

Russia’s Sberbank has structured its first trade finance deal with an Islamic bank to supply Russian wheat to Egypt. The deal with Saudi Arabia’s International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) was implemented through Sberbank’s subsidiary in Switzerland. Egypt’s state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) acted as the buyer in the deal. The Russian bank said ITFC will enable it to significantly increase its share in Russian wheat exports to Egypt.

Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has said that whereas Bank of Uganda still has challenges, it should work around the clock to quickly resolve the pending establishment of Islamic Banking. Mr Kasaija said that, as government, they had done their job to pass the law and it was now the work of the Central Bank to operationalise the Shari'a-based banking system. In 2016, government enacted the law that would introduced Islamic Banking, agent banking and bancassurance, among other products. However, whereas other products have already been established, implantation of Islamic Banking continues to be delayed.