IslamicFinance.de

Emirates Islamic has launched of a five year Wakala investment option, with an expected profit rate of 2.5 per cent per annum. Launched with the objective of encouraging customers to focus on long term savings, Emirates Islamic’s five year Wakala investment option is available on amounts starting from AED100,000 up to AED25 million. By offering an annual profit rate similar to what is to be paid for Zakat, Emirates Islamic is enabling Muslim customers to use their funds wisely to meet their Zakat obligations. Meanwhile all customers can benefit from the attractive profit rates. The five year Wakala requires customers to ensure that the amount invested remains locked-in for a period of five years, as early liquidation would mean loss of profit.

Three years after its first foray into the Islamic capital markets ended without a sale, investors piled in to buy sukuk debt from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS:US) yesterday. The New York-based lender attracted bids for three times the $500 million of sukuk it sold. The five-year sukuk was priced to yield 90 basis points, or 0.9 percentage point, over the benchmark midswap rate. After failing to sell sukuk bonds in 2011 amid criticism the deal didn’t ensure debt would be traded at par, as required by Islamic law, Goldman adjusted the structure this time in a bid to appeal to more investors. The new issue is a Sukuk al Wakala. Standard & Poor’s rated the issue A-, the seventh-highest investment grade.

Industry players are upbeat about Islamic Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) but say a lot needs to be done to raise awareness and excitement about the investment fund. Generally, however, Malaysia has not been enjoying much success when it comes to ETFs since the first product was listed on the local bourse in 2005. Global ETF experts were in unison in pinpointing limited investor awareness as the culprit for the fund’s lack of success. The Malaysian ETF market stands at RM1.03 billion of assets under management (AUM) as at August 2014, versus the global figure of more than US$3 trillion (RM9.6 trillion) by year-end. On the global stage, ETFs have been growing at a phenomenal rate, estimated at some 20 per cent of compounded annual growth rate since its debut in 1989.

Azzad Asset Management has announced the release of a white paper detailing the impact of Halal investing guidelines on investment performance. Examining historical data over the last two decades, the white paper offers evidence that Shari'ah-screened indices, which favor industries like information technology and health care and exclude financial services, can outperform their broad-based conventional counterparts over the long term. The paper also shows that the most significant divergence between conventional and Shari'ah-screened indices is the almost complete lack of financials in the latter due to the Islamic prohibition on interest. Azzad's findings follow other research indicating that socially responsible investing strategies can deliver competitive risk-adjusted returns over the long run.

The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, has graciously consented to be the Royal Patron for Malaysia’s Islamic Finance Initiative. On behalf of the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) executive committee, the central bank said under the patronage of Sultan Nazrin, it was envisaged that Malaysia’s Islamic finance marketplace would continue to further strengthen the goodwill and strong bilateral relationships the country has established with other nations. Sultan Nazrin obtained a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University.

Egypt's Wethaq Takaful Insurance has purchased EGP 17 million worth of investment certificates to fund the new waterway along the Suez Canal, said General Manager of Financial and Administration Affairs Abd El Aziz Labib. Labib referred to the Suez Canal investment certificate as a guaranteed saving pool, at an interest rate of 12%, which is higher than those invested in the Treasury bill and bonds. Furthermore, the Egyptian official said Wethaq Takaful's portfolio of total investments reached EGP 230 million by end of last fiscal year 2013/2014. The company plans to boost its investment portfolio to EGP 250 million by end of the current fiscal year.

The growth in demand is moving sukuks from a niche category to a viable alternative investment. This year’s issuance so far has been dominated by Malaysian issuers, with 63% of the market, followed by Saudi Arabia with 13.7%. Malaysian bonds in particular are attracting “agnostic” investors including hedge funds and fixed income managers who don’t necessarily follow sharia. Despite sukuks’ rapid growth, they remain a far from mainstream asset, and one limited mostly to sophisticated investors because of an often complicated structure. They’re also much less liquid than traditional forms of government or corporate bonds, because the secondary market is much smaller. But for investors looking to buy and hold, they’re looking more attractive all the time.

The current annual growth rate for Indonesia’s Islamic finance market is 16.5 percent, down from 24.2 percent in 2013, and 49.2 percent in 2011. A large part of this decline can be attributed to the most recognisable instrument of Islamic finance, sukuk. The OJK is now preparing a new blueprint due at the end of the year to expand Islamic finance in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. It says the new blueprint may include additional benefits to current fee and tax incentives to revive the domestic sukuk market, and also said it was considering extending the beneficial issuance fee for sukuk to issuance of sharia-compliant securities. The document will also address issues in Islamic finance including lack of economies of scale, consolidation opportunities, and the role of foreign ownership.

Egypt said on Sunday it expected to receive around $425 million in funding from the Islamic Development Bank to develop an oil refinery in Assiut and an airport in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The first agreement is for $198 million earmarked for the refinery. A further $226.8 million (not $8.23 million) will go towards the first phase of the Sharm el-Sheikh airport project. Egypt has requested a further $223.2 million for the second phase of the project. The Islamic Development Bank made financing contributions worth about $1.85 billion in Egypt between July 2013 and August 2014. The country will also seek external sources of funding for other development projects.

Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC (DIB) has raised loan growth forecasts for 2014 as it increases its corporate and real estate businesses amid the fastest economic expansion in the lender’s home market for at least seven years. The bank expects lending to grow 15 percent to 20 percent in 2014, more than the 10 percent to 15 percent it had previously forecast, according to Chief Executive Officer Adnan Chilwan. The company will continue to expand to take advantage of the emirate’s buoyant property market, while keeping its proportion of total lending at about 25 percent. Besides, the lender is exploring the option of setting up a new bank in Kenya by the end of the year to add to its presence in Pakistan, Jordan, and Bosnia, Chilwan said. It also expects to increase its stake in Indonesia’s Bank Panin Syariah.

The Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has appointed a new secretary-general. Saudi Arabian national Hamed Hassan Merah has been chosen for the post, replacing Khaled Al Fakih, who left the organisation in May after two and a half years in charge. Merah most recently worked with Solidarity Saudi Takaful Company and before that with Riyadh-based Jadwa Investment. Established in 1990, AAOIFI issues guidelines that are followed wholly or in part by Islamic financial institutions around the world. But as Islamic banking has grown globally over the last several years, other standard-setting bodies have become increasingly active and influential.

Islamic bond programmes from a trio of big conventional banks are set to expand the boundaries of Islamic finance, helping open the market to first-time issuers while testing the banks' ability to win over industry purists. Since June, France's Societe Generale, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) and Goldman Sachs have set up sukuk programmes, aiming to tap the pool of cash-rich Islamic investors. An abortive plan by Goldman to issue sukuk in 2011 showed the obstacles which conventional banks can face in the market. But if the three banks are successful and become regular sukuk issuers, they could help to widen Islamic finance beyond its core markets in the Middle East and southeast Asia.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) is offering investors low-risk exposure to global sharia-compliant stocks through a new 100% capital-protected note that tracks the Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 index. The launch of the note is part of ADIB's growing wealth management offering and helps investors in the region to diversify their portfolio. The Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index, which includes the largest 100 sharia-compliant stocks traded globally, has given an annualized return of 6.01 percent over the last 10 years, and just over 21 percent in 2013. The note provides 100 percent capital protection at maturity to minimize risk for a minimum investment of US $30,000. The notes are open for subscription until 24th September 2014.

Hawkamah has announced the appointment of Dr. Ashraf Gamal El Din, as the Chief Executive Officer, effective September 1, 2014. He will be based in Dubai with a mandate to cover the MENASA region. With 28 years’ experience, Dr. Ashraf has worked with several companies and educational institutions. Dr. Ashraf has extensive experience in corporate governance and in setting and implementing strategies to raise the level of awareness and application of corporate governance and responsible business behaviour among companies. Dr. Ashraf holds a PhD degree from the School of Economic, Social and Legal Studies, University of Manchester, England.

The new sample of the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) Sharia Compliant Index, which includes 32 MSM listed companies, will start operations on Sunday. MSM will revise the sample each three months to include companies that are compliant with regulations and exclude companies that are not compliant. Analysts said that the Islamic indicators will attract new category of investors as they meet the needs of investors who prefer to have reliable reference that help them in identifying the investments that meet the requirements of the Islamic Sharia. This in turn will contribute to the development and growth of the Islamic finance market.

Islamic bond programmes from a trio of big conventional banks are set to expand the boundaries of Islamic finance, helping open the market to first-time issuers while testing the banks' ability to win over industry purists. Since June, France's Societe Generale, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) and Goldman Sachs have set up sukuk programmes, aiming to tap the pool of cash-rich Islamic investors. They are treading a fine line, having to reconcile the fact that their businesses mostly depend on conventional banking practices. If the three banks are successful and become regular sukuk issuers, they could help to widen Islamic finance beyond its core markets in the Middle East and southeast Asia.

SECP is striving to establish a comprehensive Islamic financial system to cater for the needs of people, which are not inclined to use conventional financial products. The decision of SECP to permit conventional insurance companies to launch Takaful operations will result in rapid development of this sector. However, the development of an Islamic financial system needs to include Islamic banking industry, Takaful industry and Islamic capital and money markets with strong linkages, interdependence and synergies. Although Takaful has been in the market for long, it has yet to make significant inroads as the concept is clouded by unfamiliar terms and principles for commoners resulting in hesitancy. In absence of a viable Islamic capital market the adequate supply of quality financial instruments could be a difficulty.

Banks with experience arranging Islamic bond sales may stand to benefit from the potential opening of Saudi Arabia’s debt market to foreign investors. There’ll be a lot of potential for non-Saudi banks to get involved on the advising and arranging side. Besides, they’re also some of the biggest sukuk buyers. Saudi Arabia is working on new rules aimed at promoting the local currency bond and sukuk market. The rules are expected to allow foreign investors to buy local currency bonds for the first time and could be published early next year. The new rules for the debt markets are also expected to stipulate that ratings companies will need to have a local presence to rate domestic securities. Saudi Arabia is de facto leader of OPEC and plans to remove some restrictions to lure capital to the $745 billion economy.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fatah Al-Sisi has ordered the formation of an independent Zakat House with the purpose of raising charity funds in accordance with Sharia. A presidential decree stipulated the formation of a charity fund called Zakat House, which will have a legal jurisdiction and will be financially and administratively independent, but will be overseen by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. The decree aims at receiving Zakat, alms, donations, and subventions from Muslim citizens to spend them on the development of the individual and society as stipulated by Sharia law. The board of trustees which will manage the fund will include a number of public figures with backgrounds in Sharia law, economics, finance and business.

Despite strong recent growth for Islamic financial products, there still is room for further expansion, both in relatively unbanked Muslim countries in the developing world and in the West. As the orders for Britain’s issue showed, demand for sovereign sukuk is strong. Hong Kong and South Africa are scheduled to issue dollar-denominated sukuk later this month. Luxembourg, Russia, Australia, the Philippines and South Korea have also shown interest. However, there are potential pitfalls. There are calls for greater international standardisation. But since Islam has no overarching authority that can approve its rulings, there will always be disputes.