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Iran plans to hold the 7th International Exchange, Bank and Insurance (FINEX) exhibition early May which is Middle East's largest financial and investment expo. Over 280 foreign and internal companies will join the event. The expo hosts 12 foreign financial companies from Turkey, the UAE, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and South Korea. Exchange, bank and insurance, that is, capital and money markets and insurance industry are parts of the exhibition. The expo is held on May 7-10. Besides, the 5th international Islamic capital market conference will be held in Tehran on April 28-29.

Dell discovered that Quest Software had supplied software maintenance to Melli Bank, subsidiary of Bank Melli in Iran. The maintenance occurred before Dell’s buyout of Quest. In a letter to the SEC, Dell disclosed Quest’s small but potentially worrisome banking engagement. It said that the company’s Form 10-K contained information about the business transaction worth US$169.90. Although not much, any dollar amount flowing to a technology company from a bank with ties to Iran could have raised some serious red flags. It's unclear what type of e-discovery software Dell used to uncover the business transaction.

KFH-Research issued a report that stated that Iran's Islamic banking assets contributed 42.7% of the total global Islamic banking assets in 2012, followed by PGCC (34.1%) and Malaysia (10.0%). The report expected that Islamic banking will continue to grow in the PGCC region during this year, and that it will manage to enter new markets worldwide, driven by growth factors and increasing demand. Islamic banking assets are expected to reach USD 1.5 trillion by end of this year with an accumulative growth rate of up to 20%. Islamic banking represents the largest market share (80.3%) in the Islamic finance total assets.

Four people were sentenced to death on charges of corruption and disrupting the country’s economic system by the Iran Judiciary. The four are Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi, Behdad Behzadi, his legal advisor, Iraj Shoja, his financial solicitor and Saeed Kiani Rezazadeh, head of the Ahvaz branch of Saderat Bank. Other defendants were handed down sentences including imprisonment and cash fines. The defendants stood trial for misappropriating a total of USD2.6 billion of funds by using forged documents to obtain credit from banks to purchase state-owned companies. However, almost none of the companies involved in this case were ordered closed by the court.

Managing-Director of Bank Mellat Ali Divandari announced that his bank has been removed from the European Union's sanctions list. The EU Council had listed Bank Mellat and its then-chairman Dr Divandari in the designated list in July 2010 on the basis that it was a legitimate part of its regime of sanctions designed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Both the bank and Dr Divandari challenged the sanctions in the European Court which finally declared a ruling in support of Bank Mellat.

The Iranian Bank Mellat plans to sue the European Union governments for damages after a European court annulled sanctions against the company. The reasons for the court's decision are that the EU failed to provide enough evidence that Bank Mellat was linked to Iran's disputed nuclear progamme. However, EU governments may appeal the decision. Bank Mellat now plans to resume trading in Europe although broader European sanctions against Iranian banks could still limit Bank Mellat's ability to function there.

The European Court of Justice annulled the European Union (EU) sanctions imposed against the Iranian Bank Mellat in July 2010. According to the bank's Managing-Director Ali Divandari, the Court also required the EU to cover the costs of legal procedures. Additionally, Bank Mellat will receive all legal expenses as well as compensation from the EU for losses incurred because of these sanctions. Divandari also said vague reasons were used by the EU to impose the sanctions two and a half years ago.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has given its approval for a loan worth $710-million to implement four projects in Iran. The agreement was reached in the sidelines of the IMF annual meeting in Tokyo. The money will be used for the establishment of treatment plants at upstream areas around dams and rural regions, thus assuring prevention from environment pollution.

Read more on: http://www.zawya.com/story/IDB_allocates_USD710m_to_4_projects_in_Iran-Z...

The Islamic Bank has lost aproximatly 48 billion dollars only last year.
According to a report published by Saudi Al-Eqtisadiah (The Economy) newspaper, revealing AUE banks to such scrutiny and interrogations represented a distortion to the image of the banking system in the country.
The American Department of Treasury has launched a law earlier in June allowing the president to penalize foreign banks that lead financial transactions to buying oil and petroleum products from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It seems that Dubai’s Noor Islamic Bank is the only institution in the United Arab Emirates that has been targeted by the US for dealings with Iran. Moreover, it appears that the bank had been a primary conduit for returning foreign-currency oil receipts to Iran, until it agreed in December to end dealings with Iranian entities that have been sanctioned by the US and the European Union, including Iran’s banks Saderat and Melli.
Meanwhile, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the emirate’s largest bank by assets, noted it is reducing banking activities with Iran because of mounting international sanctions against the country.

Dubai Islamic bank with ties to the emirate’s ruling family stopped doing business with Iranian banks in December, shortly before the United States approved new sanctions targeting the country’s financial system.
The decision by Noor Islamic Bank cuts off another of Iran’s links to the international banking system. Noor appears to have acted indirectly in response to Washington’s efforts to compress the screws on Tehran.
The Iranian economy is under increasing pressure from a growing series of U.S. and European sanctions pointed at stopping its disputed nuclear program. Washington and its allies fear Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

It seems that Iranian authorities have brought to trial 32 people suspected of involvement in a multi-billion dollar banking fraud with alleged links to the government of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The case spinns around forged documents allegedly used by the directors of the Amir Mansour Arya Investment Co to secure loans totalling $2.6bn to buy state-owned companies under the government's privatisation scheme.

It seems that The Islamic Republic of Iran was the first country to introduce Sukuk to the financial market.
Mohammad Sajjad Siahkarzadeh noted that Iran arranged the operational mechanisms for issuing Sukuks in 1994 and introduced the mechanisms in the second Islamic Banking conference in Tehran in that year.
Siahkarzadeh also added that companies finance their operations using different financial tools such as selling stocks, bonds, etc, underlinning the fact that issuing Islamic bonds (Sukuk) is a means for funding projects.

Five billion dollars in bonds will be launched in the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2012) to speed up the implementation of South Pars gas field projects. Iran will also launch $15 billion in sukuk bonds in the current year to be invested in the domestic oil industry. The statement came from the National Iranian Oil Company’s managing director Ahmad Qalebani.

Ali Saleh Abadi, the head of Securities and Exchange Organization, noted that Iran's capital market has rised around 34% in recent years. The value showed a 13 billion dollars growth in comparison to the year before.
Tehran Stock Exchange Corporation is Iran's largest stock exchange and is a full member of the World Federation of Exchanges and a founding member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges.

The GCC Islamic banking community is well positioned to build on a leadership role versus other potential competing centers such as Malaysia, Iran or even the UK.
GCC Islamic banks have also prooved their ability to be more innovative in terms of product development and provision of services as they compete for business with conventional banks. However competition in the GCC has also outcome as a fragmented Islamic finance industry with most local institutions remaining relatively minor players on a global scale.

In order to pay Iran for the import of oil, India looks at the possibility of opening ccounts in banks like Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank. National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) is also looking at opening an account in a UAE or Turkey based bank to receive direct money transfer from oil companies.

The Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran has put on agenda to add new Islamic instruments such as Derivative Securities, Istisna and Murabaha in Capital Market as of the next Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2010).
Ali Saeedi, a senior official in Bourse Organization said the necessary grounds have been paved for the entrance of sukuk or Islamic bonds in Bourse Organization, adding BRokerage firms are considered as the main infrastructures for entrance of new monetary means to bourse. He gave news that Murabaha bonds would be issued next year.

The International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) is expected to issue the first Shariah-compliant financial instruments by year-end.
The minimum size of the instruments could be US$300 million depending on the market demand.
The IILM was established on October 2010 with 14 founding shareholders, comprising the 12 central banks of Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia,Mauritius, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as two multi-lateral institutions, the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector.

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojastehmehr says Tehran will issue Islamic bonds (Sukuk) for procuring financial resources for the country's oil projects.
Sukuk will be issued in the next Iranian calendar year which starts on March 21 as part of the ministry's plans to diversify financial resources for implementing various upstream and downstream projects in the oil industry.