IslamicFinance.de

The Western Union Company has launched “Apna Sapna”, a Financial Literacy Programme for migrant workers in the UAE to help them develop the awareness and skills to manage their finances and plan for the future. “Apna Sapna”, which in Hindi means “Our Dream”, is endorsed by the UAE Labour Ministry and aims to address the challenges of migrant workers who are often unsure about how to achieve their long-term financial goals. With the “Apna Sapna” programme, Western Union intends to train 3,000 people over two months through face-to-face training sessions which will take place across a number of labour camps in the UAE.

Oman's Bank Nizwa recently held its 11th Sharia Supervisory Board meeting to discuss proposals for additional Sharia compliant financing solutions to meet the growing needs of the Bank’s individual and corporate customers. Dr. Jamil El Jaroudi, CEO of Bank Nizwa said the regular meetings allow the Bank to assess the performance of current products and services while also identifying the best approach for launching new propositions. The Board’s decisions are guided by the Islamic Banking Regulatory framework issued by the Central Bank of Oman, as well as the Sharia standards issued by the Auditing and Accounting Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions in Oman.

NCB Capital has sponsored a new fully equipped lab at Effat University in Jeddah as part of its commitment to spread financial literacy among Saudi Youth. The lab comprises of 25 computer machines and includes hardware and software which help students to monitor financial markets and train them on making sound investments. Sarah Al-Suhaimi, CEO of NCB Capital, said that education sector is a key part of NCB Capital’s corporate social responsibility activities. By sponsoring this initiative, NCB aims to forge a collaborative relationship with Effat University in order to support financial knowledge among the students, and to also introduce them to the world of investment, she added.

In line with its commitment to foster the cargo insurance facilities, Dubai Trade has signed an agreement with Dar Al Takaful to provide the marine and cargo insurance services through Dubai Trade's online platform "Tradeshield" which has been launched earlier this year. The agreement was signed by the CEO of Dubai Trade, Eng. Mahmood Al Bastaki, and Mr. Saleh Al Hashmi, the Managing Director of Dar Al Takaful . Dubai Trade allows clients to easily complete the end-to-end process of purchasing cargo insurance online through its website.

Dubai saw on Thursday the listing of the very first Islamic bond in its stock market by China's Hong Kong Special administrative region. The listing of the one-billion U.S. dollar sukuk marks Dubai as one of the top three listing venues in the world for sukuk, with a currently listed nominal value of 24.05 billion dollars. The Nasdaq Dubai competes with the sukuk hubs in Kuala Lumpur and in London. A total of 14.15 billion dollars of sukuks have been listed on Dubai's exchanges so far in 2014, up 107 percent from 6.85 billion dollars in 2013.

Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House has signed a joint venture with France's Alliance International Holding which is likely to kick-start the Tunis Bay project. Tunis Bay is part of the overall $3 billion Tunis Financial Harbour project. Alliance International Holding is a French consortium which specialises in the building of golf course projects and new community developments. It said it has signed a deal with the GFH-owned Tunis Bay Project Company which will see more than 800,000 sq m of land developed into a golf course with surrounding villas and apartments. Construction work by the joint venture will start next year as part of the first phase of the Tunis Bay development.

GCC Board Directors Institute ("BDI") released insights that Board composition and selection were identified as key priorities in the corporate governance choices faced by GCC businesses, as highlighted during the Institute's Foundations of Directorship Workshop held in partnership with Investcorp on 7-9 Dec 2014 in Bahrain. BDI's Foundations of Directorship workshop is hands-on and experiential where participants are presented with contemporary issues and challenges that boards in the GCC are faced with. The workshop held by BDI in Bahrain this week, was in partnership with Investcorp , a founding member of BDI.

Mishal Kanoo, deputy chairman of the Kanoo Group, believes that the big merchant families of the Gulf are the backbone of the regional economies, and that of the UAE. Most of them came into being around the time Gulf states won independence in the 1970s, so now they are in the third generation of ownership. This creates its own tensions. Part of the problem lies in the blurred distinction between ownership and management, he says. The other question is how to protect minority family members who do not wish to be involved in the management, but who have an economic stake in the running of the business.

Despite the rapid economic and social development in countries across North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, many companies may be wary of exploring new business opportunities in these jurisdictions due to the complexities with local laws governing foreign businesses and taxation. To respond to this, KPMG has launched a new guide – the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) Tax Guide 2014-15. The guide is available online, free of cost and provides a quick and easy summary of the main regulations affecting foreign companies in 19 countries across the region.

Nakheel today confirmed a profit payment of AED220 million on its trade creditor Sukuk. Instructions have been sent to Deutsche Bank, the registrar and paying agent for the Sukuk, to make the profit payment to all Sukuk holders on the due date of 15 December 2014 against the Sukuk issued amount of AED4.4 billion to date. Nakheel 's current portfolio of developments in Dubai includes Palm Jumeirah, The World, Deira Islands, Jumeirah Islands, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Park, Jumeirah Heights, The Gardens, Discovery Gardens, Al Furjan, Warsan Village and International City. Together, these span nearly 14,000 hectares and provide homes for more than 200,000 people.

The Kingdom joined the rest of the world in observing International Anti-Corruption Day on Tuesday to raise awareness about the importance of making Saudi Arabia a corruption-free country. The Anti-Corruption Day is observed by the United Nations every year on Dec. 9 in order to highlight the evils of corruption and its negative impact on government systems globally. To mark the occasion, Nazaha, Saudi national anti-corruption commission, hosted a forum. A seminar entitled “The role of medial and cultural institutions in maintaining integrity and fighting corruption” was organized by Nazaha on the sidelines of the event.

Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group plans to set up an Islamic bank in Morocco next year with a capital of USD 50 million, CEO Adnan Ahmed Yousif said. Last month, Morocco's parliament gave final approval to an Islamic finance bill that allows foreign banks and local lenders to set up Islamic banks in the North African country. Yousif declined to name the potential partners, but said the new bank would be established in 2015 with a plan to open 10 branches in the first year of operations. He said Al Baraka expected to record growth of 12% in assets, of 11% in deposits and of 10% in income during 2015.

The ‘Arab Knowledge Report 2014: Youth and Localization of Knowledge’ was launched in Dubai on Wednesday, the second day of the First Knowledge Conference. To meet increasing social and economic development challenges, Arab countries must integrate better in today’s global knowledge economy. Their most effective route toward that end is investment in empowering the full and active engagement of their youth in processes of knowledge generation, transfer and localization, the report says. The report applauded the UAE’s efforts to build the capacities of its human capital, particularly its youth.

BMI Bank, a subsidiary of Bahrain's Al Salam Bank (ASBB), has announced that Jamal Al-Hazeem, director and CEO of the bank had stepped down. Al-Hazeem who took on the helm of BMI Bank in 2010 as CEO, cited personal reasons for his resignation and called the decision to step down as CEO of the Bank as "mutual and amicable". He will continue to stay on as a director on the board at BMI Bank which is currently finalising the operational aspects of its merger with Al Salam Bank as it converts its business to a Sharia compliant one.

Investment Dar, the Kuwaiti firm best-known for its stake in luxury carmaker Aston Martin, hopes to complete a second debt-for-assets deal with creditors by the end of March. The firm has received the backing of a significant majority of investors for the proposal, which would see creditors voluntarily exchanging debt for ownership of a portfolio of assets. No details or terms for the so-called settlement-in-kind proposal have been released, although the Nov. 18 update said there would be no losses imposed on creditors under the plan and no change to the existing maturity of the debt.

The Capital Market Authority (CMA), represented by the Oman Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability, in cooperation with the Pearl Initiative, organised a seminar on 'Governance of Family Businesses and the Separation of Ownership from Management and Succession Planning'. The seminar was aimed at airing the views of those present and fostering dialogue among the representatives of the family businesses, business experts and specialists in this regard. Speakers underlined the importance of accountability and transparency in the family and state-owned companies that seek to successfully achieve permanence and continuity.

Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) is celebrating its 10th anniversary of service to clients. In the last five years, SRB has intensified its dedication to serving clients by providing shari’a consultation, certification (Fatawa), Islamic industry jurisprudential foresight, and functional Shari’a compliance audit expertise. The number of Islamic projects have been increasing, so far SRB has completed more than 300 projects in the last four years, helping clients cover a wide spectrum of transactions ranging from sukuks (including trade finance sukuk), private equity funds, equity projects, trade finance transactions, margin trading, real estate developments, ICT deals, money market, textile, sports and pharma funds.

The sixth World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), which recently concluded in Qatar’s capital city of Doha, tackled a number of education issues on a global level. In recent years, WISE has launched a series of on-going initiatives, including the Learners’ Voice Program. It is designed to equip young people aged 18 to 25 with the relevant soft skills, tools, and know-how to address global education issues. This year, 34 young men and women were chosen from hundreds of promising applicants to take part in the 2014-2015 Learners’ Voice Program , launched at WISE 2014 with a series of workshops.

Standard and Poor's has lowered the outlook for the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to stable from positive and its Gulf partner Oman to negative on sliding oil prices. However, the ratings agency affirmed the strong "AA-/A-1+" long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for Riyadh over the "strong external and fiscal positions" it has built up in the past decade when oil prices were too high. It said low oil prices will place pressure on the kingdom's gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income because Saudi Arabia's economy is undiversified and vulnerable to a sharp and sustained decline in the oil price.

The 2015 outlook for GCC banks is stable, but it is negative for those in the rest of the MENA region, says Moody's Investors Service. The stable outlook for GCC banks is driven by strong operating conditions coupled with expansionary fiscal policies and continued infrastructure spending, which remain supportive of credit growth. However, declining oil prices if prolonged at these levels will reduce fiscal surpluses, affect economic confidence and moderate growth expectations. The negative outlook for the rest of the MENA region reflects more subdued credit growth and unsettled domestic environments, which translate into high credit risks. In addition the high exposure to low-rated government securities links non-GCC banks' credit profiles to their respective sovereigns.