IslamicFinance.de

The Islamic finance industry is still searching for a stance on to what extent conventional international law should be accepted in arbitration cases. Conservative scholars argue that non-Muslim courts should not be written into contracts as a reference for arbitrations. Islamic scholar Sheikh Saleh Abdulla al-Haidan said contracts, in which both parties agree that British law should be reference for the contract and therefore any arbitrations, violates Islamic law. According to the scholars contract parties should include arbitration centres compliant with sharia law as reference in contracts.

Maybank Islamic, Asia Pacific's largest sharia bank, is not currently seeking a strategic partner, its acting chief said after earlier talk that it would merge with the country's second Islamic bank. Acting CEO Ibrahim Hassan said Maybank Islamic is only interested in partnerships for specific business products such as the joint issue of credit cards. Malaysian financial group BIMB Holdings also denied that it was in talks to merge its sharia banking subsidiary Bank Islam with Maybank Islamic.

According to Fitch Ratings the total new Sukuk issuance (with a maturity of more than 18 months) in the Gulf Cooperation Council, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Singapore and Pakistan was around US$11.1 billion (RM42.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2016. Fitch said that Sukuk issuance was up 22% from Q4’15 and 21% from a year earlier, while non-Sukuk bond issuance of US$17.1 billion was down 23% quarter-on-quarter and 45% year-on-year. Sukuk represented 39.3% of total bond and Sukuk issuance in these countries during the quarter – the highest proportion in the past eight years.

Two billion people worldwide still lack access to formal and regulated financial services. In 2015, the World Bank Group with private and public sector partners committed to promoting financial inclusion and achieving Universal Financial Access by 2020. According to the Pakistan Microfinance Network
the estimated potential market size for microfinance is 20.5 million in Pakistan, yet the current Microfinance outreach is close to 3.7 million active borrowers, showing there is a long way to go.

Al Meezan Investments CEO Mohammad Shoaib announced the launch of the Meezan Asset Allocation Fund (MAAF), an open-end Shariah compliant asset allocation scheme. MAAF has an initial offering from April 18- 20, 2016 with no load and would be open for subscripion subsequently. MAAF aims to earn a potentially high return through asset allocation between Shariah compliant equity, fixed income and money market instruments. MAAF has an initial offering from April 18- 20, 2016 with no load and would be open for subscripion subsequently.

Islamic banking is growing fast in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, thanks to the growing popularity of its Sharia compliant structure and a helping hand from the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. According to the State Bank of Pakistan most of Pakistan's conventional banks have now opened Sharia-compliant branches and many are working on full conversion to Islamic banking, which is growing at an annual rate double that of the country's Western-style banking sector. Pakistan's 250 million people are served by 22 local and foreign banks, five of which are Islamic. With a few exceptions almost all local and foreign conventional banks also offer Islamic financing services.

Aimed at raising awareness of and promoting Islamic finance in the country, Bank Alfalah has organised the launch of a book titled ‘Shariah Minds in Islamic Finance’ by the scholar Dr Mohammadd Daud Bakar. The book presents insights into the life of an international scholar, discusses stakeholders’ expectations and defines the ultimate role scholars should play in shaping the industry’s future. Dr Bakar currently serves as Chairman of the Shariah Advisory Council at the Central Bank of Malaysia, the Securities Commission of Malaysia, Labuan Financial Services Authority and the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM). He is also a Shariah board member of various financial institutions.

Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Limited and BankIslami Pakistan Limited have joined hands to offer their customers with valuable Honda products coupled with Shariah compliant Auto financing solutions. Yasser Abbas, Section Auto Ijarah BankIslami and Nadeem Azam, General Manager Sales & Marketing Honda signed the agreement. Maqsood Rehmani Vice President, M. Afzal Senior Manager Sales & Marketing and Shahzad Wahla Deputy Manager Sales & Marketing from HACPL and Syed Jibran Ali Unit Head Auto Ijarah, Hafiz Shabir HSM Central Region and Rizwan Haider TL Retail Central from BankIslami were also present on the occasion.

Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCFL) Monday paid Rs 8 billion Sukuk loan much earlier than scheduled. The company has been able to pay off much earlier than scheduled, its entire Sukuk loan of Rs 8 billion in the third quarter of the current financial year, said Muhammad Ashraf, MLCFL's company secretary, in a stock filing Monday. The payment, he said, was made against the agreed repayment schedule till December 2018. Improved profitability, better cash flow, cost curtailment initiatives and efficient financial discipline made it possible to repay the debt in advance.

Imams and other religious leaders are an under-used means of pushing action to combat climate change, experts and religious scholars say. Religious leaders have the moral standing to call on people and businesses to consider the environmental impact of their activities and take a bigger role in reducing their own carbon footprints and finding ways to cope with the growing impacts of climate change, experts said at a multi-faith meeting in Islamabad. But first, they need training to both understand and communicate the issues accurately in a country hard-hit by climate-related drought, flooding, crop losses and other problems.

Standard Chartered Saadiq has announced to enhance its offering for clients looking for Shariah-compliant banking products and services. The enhanced Saadiq product suite includes Home Finance with fixed pricing for up to three years so the clients can benefit from prevailing low market rates and the Saadiq World Miles Credit Card. In order to address the needs of its business banking clients, Saadiq has also launched a new product: Saadiq Business Term Finance, a Shariah compliant solution for clients to manage their business expenditures by availing financing against their existing property.

In order to promote the SBP initiative for SME sector and for Agri Financing, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Al Baraka Bank (Pakistan) Limited & Al-Ghazi Tractors Limited, for the facilitation of ‘Tractor Financing’ at Al Baraka House, Karachi. This MoU will allow the farmers and agriculturists to avail Shariah compliant financing options for rural financing including financing of tractors and other credit facilities, with quicker processing and flexible payment options. Al Baraka Bank (Pakistan) Limited (ABPL) is a part of Al Baraka Banking Group, Bahrain, and has a network of 150 branches spread over 94 cities & Towns across Pakistan.

In order to foster the growth of Islamic mutual fund industry, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has revised the investment parameters for Shariah Compliant open end collective investment schemes. The Commission allowed the Islamic mutual funds to include the Government of Pakistan Ijarah Sukuk not exceeding 90 days remaining maturity in cash and near cash instruments requirement. Shariah Compliant open end collective investments schemes has not seen the issuance of short term Islamic Government papers like T-Bills, therefore, Government Ijarah Sukuk having remaining maturity of 90 days or less is the only viable and available avenue for investment in cash and near cash equivalent.

Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has announced that its retail banking subsidiary in Pakistan, Faysal Bank Limited, has registered a record profit for 2015. Faysal Bank registered a profit, after tax, of US$ 41mn (PKR 4.2bn) during 2015, a 70 percent increase over the profit reported for 2014. During the year, the bank's operating income increased by 95 percent, growing from US$ 35mn (PKR 3.5bn) in 2014 to US$ 67mn (PKR 6.9bn) in 2015. Total assets increased by 11 percent to US$ 4bn (PKR 430bn) as of 31 December 2015, compared to US$ 3.7bn (PKR 388bn) as at 31 December 2014. Faysal Bank also announced a cash dividend of PKR 1 per share (10 percent of share par value) for 2015.

Thousands of Pakistani households are turning to microfinance institutions which provide loans based on Islamic law, or Sharia. The available video looks at micro financing solutions in Pakistan provided by Achuwat which provides interest free loans. Religious lending is expected to grow in the coming years, and this video looks at case studies of a school teacher and tailor. The majority of clients of micro financing solutions are women.

Many prospective banking customers cannot easily discriminate between the convential and the Islamic banking system. Despite this lack of clarity, the number of Islamic banks and Islamic banking counters of conventional banks have increased by the day. The question to ask is as to how exactly are they operating here and what models are they adopting in the presence of a well-established interest based banking system. Around 99 per cent Islamic banking in Pakistan revolves around lending and buy-back model and not even one per cent is based on profit and loss sharing. A physical asset is involved in deals. The real challenge for Islamic banks is how to cater to the borrowing needs of the government that are huge.

UBL Fund Managers Limited (UBL Funds) announced the launch of the Al-Ameen Islamic Active Allocation Plan–IV, under the Al-Ameen Islamic Financial Planning Fund. This Plan is now open for subscription. The plan actively allocates investments between Islamic equity and Islamic income/money market classes with an aim to achieve potentially high returns. It has a term of two years and is ideal for investors who wish to benefit from the equity market and desire active management of their investment portfolios. Mir Muhammad Ali, Chief Executive UBL Funds, said that the Al-Ameen Islamic Active Allocation Plan series has been well received by investors with initial investments of Al-Ameen Islamic Active Allocation Plans I, II and III totaling more than Rs. 6.3bn.

A fraud of around Rs 30 billion in Islamic investment system of Mudarba and Musharaka has been committed by the Elixir Group of Companies, reveals an investigation by National Accountability Bureau. The fraud, which has victimised over 35,000 people across the country, was committed by a group of so-called Islamic scholars through a large number of mosque imams, seminary managers, madrassa students, their families, relatives and acquaintances. The scam planners are all settled abroad and most of them have dual nationalities, according to a NAB officer who is close to the investigation process.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has introduced three-year Fixed Rental Rate Government of Pakistan (GOP) Ijara Sukuk (FRR-GIS). Presently, Variable Rental Rate GOP Ijara Sukuk (VRR-GIS) is being auctioned and its rental rate is being fixed every three months on the basis of Market Treasury Bills' cut-off yield. However, on the request of Islamic Banking Industry, SBP has decided to launch Fixed Rental Rate GOP Ijara Sukuk for market development. The rental rate decided in the auction will be applicable to the entire tenor of FRR-GIS and will be paid to FRR-GIS holders on semi-annual basis. Minimum bid size will be Rs 100,000 and in multiples thereof. Rental rate (% p.a.) has to be specified up to a maximum of two decimals points.

Silkbank introduced Emaan Islamic Banking through conversion of its seven conventional banking branches into dedicated Islamic Banking branches. In early 2013, three new branches were added to the Islamic Banking network. Emaan Islamic Banking offers a suite of deposit products as well as a range of asset products. The Islamic Banking Division has an alliance with Pak Qatar Family Takaful to provide Takaful & Saving Plans. With the implementation of the SBP Shari’ah Governance Framework and induction of a renowned Shariah scholar, the Islamic Banking Division endeavours to develop Islamic Banking products in Pakistan and serve as a catalyst in Islamic Banking growth in the region. The Bank plans to add 60 new branches in 2016 to the existing network and another 102 branches in the next two years.