IslamicFinance.de

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) held a signing ceremony for Financial Innovation Challenge Fund (FICF) on promoting excellence in Islamic finance in Pakistan under its financial inclusion programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). The signing ceremony marks the beginning of the implementation phase of the FICF innovative Islamic finance education and research projects in partnership with higher education institutions which was earlier launched by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on January 9, 2015. At the ceremony, three projects were signed with Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Institute of Management Sciences (IM Sciences).

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), a Government Department which helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy, has released a brochure which contains Sharia compliant UK regeneration investment opportunities in the UK. The Regeneration Investment Organisation (RIO) has identified projects at a point of development where project and finance structure can be discussed with project promoters. These projects are listed in the brochure in their totality: some parts may not be Sharia-compliant. Meanwhile, Islamic finance investors are taking a keen interest in UK real estate by funding a number of high profile projects.

LCI Helicopters has closed an Islamic pre-delivery payment facility with Bank of London and the Middle East and Lloyds Bank. The facility will be used for Airbus H175s and H224es delivering over the next three years. LCI says it will be used to make pre-delivery payments on helicopters worth $250 million. The LCI deal relied on a master Murabaha facility with Lloyds also providing a conventional loan. Lloyds was mandated lead arranger for both facilities. BLME also closed a $25 million pre-delivery facility for LCI in December that financed AgustaWestland pre-delivery payments.

An estimated 20 percent of Libya’s $67bn-plus sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), has yet to be fully traced since the death of Colonel Gaddafi. The LIA appointed Deloitte in 2012 to conduct an audit of all of its assets – many of which are tied up in investments outside the country. The auditor’s report was sent to the LIA in 2013 but has never been made public. The only detail the LIA released was the fund’s total value, estimated by Deloitte to be around $67 billion. The audit involved sourcing, verifying and valuing the assets of a fund its chairman Hassan Bouhadi describes as a “big black hole” whose contents are unknown to all but a few.

Kuwait is preparing legislation to facilitate issues of Islamic bonds by the government as it assesses options to finance a big budget deficit caused by low oil prices, Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said. Early this month, Kuwait’s parliament approved a budget for the current fiscal year that envisages a deficit of 8.18 billion dinars ($27.0 billion) - nearly half total spending - because of oil’s plunge since mid-2014, which has slashed energy export revenues. The government is looking at ways to save money by limiting energy subsidies and other handouts, and this has worried a public used to a lavish cradle-to-grave welfare system.

The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) and the World Bank are pleased to announce their joint international conference on "Corporate Governance for Islamic Financial Institutions: Lessons from Recent Global Developments", which is due to take place in Amman, Jordan on 15th and 16th September 2015. The one and half day conference aims to bring together various stakeholders from the private sector, multilateral development institutions, international and national regulatory bodies, policy-makers, and academia to discuss the issue of corporate governance in the Islamic financial services industry (IFSI).

It is proposed that the current legislation in respect of sukuk and murabaha financing will be extended to listed companies, within the 2015 Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB) that South Africa's Ministry of Finance recently published for public comment. South African Sharia-compliant financing arrangements have been introduced in stages. Changes were made to the tax code to introduce sukuk bond financing arrangements, but these were restricted to the Government and public entities. This is now intended to be available to listed corporates from January 1, 2016. It is also proposed in the 2015 TLAB that it will be possible for listed companies (in addition to banks, as at present) to engage in murabaha financing.

Samina Akram left her job at Merrill Lynch International Bank eight years ago to start her own consultancy in London specializing in Shariah-compliant finance. Now she's seeking to empower women in male-dominated Islamic banking. What started as an informal ladies lunch club with other women in the industry will this week become the first global Women in Islamic & Ethical Finance Forum, a conference for more than 200 people at KPMG LLP's Canary Wharf offices in London. Akram is seeking to support women in an industry where they face more obstacles than in conventional banking because of religious conservatism, restrictions on mixed-gender working environments and stereotypes.

Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Sunday for a united front among Middle Eastern nations to fight militancy, in his first regional trip since Iran reached an agreement with world powers on the country's nuclear programme - an agreement that raised fears among its Gulf Arab neighbours. Most Gulf Arab states are worried that Iran's July 14 accord will hasten detente between Tehran and Washington, emboldening Tehran to increase backing for Middle Eastern allies at odds with Gulf Arab countries. Most Sunni Muslim-ruled Gulf Arab states have long accused Tehran of interference in Arab affairs, alleging financial or armed support for political movements.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are facing major challenges related to their demographic evolution and oil-dependent economic structure, most notably Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. National population in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is expected to keep growing fast thus putting pressure on their economies to create a vast amount of jobs for newcomers, the report by Asiya Capital Investment Company said. Saudi authorities are aware of this problem for many years, and developed several "Saudization" initiatives of the labor market. The approach that Kuwait took to nationalize its private labor market, establishing minimum levels of Kuwaiti employees in each company.

The Shariah-compliant banking sector in Malaysia, already among the largest in the world by assets, is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 18% over the next years to reach a value of $296.26bn in 2019. This is the prognosis contained in the Malaysia Islamic Finance Report 2015 revealed at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on June 30. The report, commissioned by Malaysia’s CIMB Islamic and produced in partnership with Jeddah-based Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions based in Manama, Bahrain and Thomson Reuters, also projects that takaful contributions in Malaysia will grow at an average 18.2% year-on-year to reach a market share of 17.96% of total insurance premiums by 2019, equal to $5.51bn.

Eskan Bank has appointed Securities & Investment Company (SICO) as lead arranger for the first real estate investment trust (REIT) on the Bahrain Bourse. Eskan Bank 's REIT will consist of two income-generating and unleveraged properties currently owned by Bahrain Property Musharaka Trust (BPMT) which was formed in May 2011, in collaboration with reputable institutional investors and high net worth individuals. As arranger, SICO is responsible for managing the entire process. The Sharia-compliant REIT is expected to have a total value of BD20 million, with a tranche that will be offered to the public through the initial public offering (IPO) that is planned to take place later this year.

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) announced that it will increase its funding of SDG related activities through its ten year strategy framework, from $80 billion recorded during the MDGs, to $150 billion over the next 15 years (2016-2030). IsDB made the announcement on the sidelines of the United Nations’ Third International Conference on Financing for Development, in Addis Ababa 13-16 July. Islamic finance can serve as a strong and non-traditional source of financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) according to global experts speaking during a seminar organised by the IsDB. Johannes Majewski, Program Coordinator, GIZ, the German Corporation extolled the strength of Islamic finance through its emphasis on asset based financing and its focus on common welfare.

A new competition to support start-ups and businesses in the Islamic digital economy will be inaugurated at the Global Islamic Economy Summit (GIES 2015) on 5-6 October. The ‘Innovation 4 Impact’ competition will be hosted by Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) and the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), in collaboration with Thomson Reuters. Also working with the American Muslim Consumer Consortium, it seeks to support start-ups and businesses in the Islamic digital economy and serve as an incubator for SMEs across the world. The competition is open for applications from any company or entrepreneur with an idea or business venture in the following sectors: E-commerce, mobile computing, cloud computing, big data, hyper-converged platforms, and new media and social media.

Kuwait-based International Turnkey Systems (ITS) appears to be for sale, with its parent, Kuwait Finance House (KFH), deciding it is no longer strategic. There have been number of discussions with main rival in the Islamic core banking systems sector, Path Solutions.

Finance can be highly disruptive and destructive, but it can also be an immeasurably powerful tool for good, according to Bertrand Badre, Managing Director and World Bank Group CFO. Flow of capital into emerging markets and developing economies for infrastructure increases the availability of basic services, resulting in increased access to water, electricity and sanitation, more hospitals, schools and roads and stimulation of entrepreneurship, trade and prosperity. Many countries are investing in financial inclusion strategies. Religion permeates almost every facet of development and faith organizations play an instrumental role in combatting poverty as service providers, change agents and advocates. Partnering with faith-based groups will allow us to combine technical approaches with the motivating power of hope.

A special task force comprising the Attorney-General's Chambers, police, anti-corruption authorities and Bank Negara is now probing the claim made by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on July 2. WSJ has posted documents on the money flow into Najib's accounts on the Internet to support its report. WSJ's report centres on some US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) funnelled into two of Najib's accounts at AmBank in Kuala Lumpur. The money was transferred in five separate deposits from two originating points. According to WSJ, the largest portion of the money – US$681 million – was transferred to Najib's accounts in March 2013, ahead of the May general election (GE13). Najib has denied taking funds for personal gain.

Dubai has achieved the 1st goal of its strategy aimed at making the emirate the global capital of Islamic economy, the UAE’s VP and PM and Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has said. His remarks came after a report showed that Dubai has overtaken other financial centres for listing Islamic bonds on its exchanges. Sukuk listed on Dubai’s 2 exchanges, Nasdaq Dubai and Dubai Financial Market, rose to $36.7-B (Dhs 134.38bn) in Y 2015, according to a study by Nasdaq Dubai. According to a report the global Islamic economy has a potential value of $6.7 -T and is bigger than most of the economies in the world except China and the United States. The report estimates that Muslim consumers’ global expenditure on the media, food, and lifestyle sectors such as cosmetics and tourism is forecast to touch $2.47-T by Y 2018.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is in the process of preparing shari'ah compliance regulations for the Islamic capital market. The SECP has chalked out a comprehensive plan for the development of the Islamic capital market in the country. Under the future plan, the SECP will introduce new products for Islamic capital market. The commission would also create awareness on the Islamic capital market. Besides, the SECP is planning to introduce shari'ah audit mechanism. The commission would also adopt new accounting standards on Islamic finance issued by Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). The SECP will launch webpage of Islamic finance department for education, promotion and development of Islamic finance.

The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions, and the World Bank have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU will help foster the development of Islamic finance globally and expand its use as an effective tool for financing development worldwide, including in non-Muslim countries. The MoU serves as the foundation for future cooperation in the areas of knowledge generation and dissemination; distilling and sharing lessons of experience; encouraging research and promoting awareness; and enhancing capacity in the Islamic financial services industry.