Conference program of the upcoming AAOIFI event.
A year after the emirate set out plans to be the Islamic economic hub, it's seven months behind schedule in setting up a centralised Sharia body that would help spur the emirate's sukuk market. Dubai is still deliberating with the federal government to establish the board, according to Abdulla Mohammad Al Awar, chief executive officer of the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC). While Islamic financial assets are set to almost double to $3.4 trillion by 2018, regulations in the industry are underdeveloped. Malaysia is one of the first countries to set up a Sharia authority as part of its central bank. The UAE Federal National Council, a half-elected advisory council with some parliamentary powers, plans to push for a central Sharia board.
Alizz islamic bank has begun its local community engagement in Dakhliyah governorate with generous support towards Al Noor Association in Burkat al Mooz. Salaam bin Said al Shaksy, chief executive officer of alizz islamic bank and other senior executives from the bank planned a surprise visit to the association after the successful launch of alizz islamic bank’s official launch of Nizwa Branch in Firq. The association serves the interest of blind and visually impaired in social, economic, welfare, education, health, training, placement and teaching of brail. The centre in Burkat al Mooz represents interests of the blind covering the Dakhliyah region.
Al Hilal Bank recently received Kairat Kelimbetov, the Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi. Both parties discussed the key role of Al Hilal Bank as the first and only Islamic bank operating in Kazakhstan. Mohamed Jamil Berro, Al Hilal Bank’s Group CEO, personally welcomed Governor Kelimbetov and briefed the guest on the Islamic products offered by Al Hilal. Kelimbetov noted the role of Al Hilal Bank’s activities in the development of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan, and added that the National Bank of Kazakhstan will continue to support development of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan.
Tadhamon International Islamic Bank, a Sharia'a-compliant Bank licensed by the Central Bank of Yemen, has announced management changes in its investment arm in Bahrain, Tadhamon Capital BSC, by appointing Mr. Ahmed Hatam Sultan as its new Chief Executive Officer. In addition and as part of Tadhamon Capital's new changes, the company has appointed Mr. Hesham Al Gassab as the Executive Director of Investments overlooking the investment portfolio managed by the company and Mr. Maisarh Yaseen Omar as Director of the Treasury Department. Tadhamon Capital specializes in structuring and managing new investments and products across its business lines, consisting of Real Estate, Alternative Investments, Treasury & Capital Markets and Investor Relations.
The Arabia CSR Network has honored Huawei—a leading global ICT solutions provider—for its strong contribution and support of the organization’s annual Arabia CSR Forum & Awards Ceremony 2014 held in Dubai for the 7th consecutive year. During this year’s forum, Huawei connected with government and business leaders to discuss regional priorities such as stimulating public-private partnerships in the CSR field, embedding CSR into organizational practices, and creating regulatory frameworks that support sustainable growth of businesses in the Middle East. The company’s current Sustainability strategy focuses on pillars such as bridging the digital divide, ensuring stable & secure network operations, promoting environmental sustainability, and seeking win-win development with its industry partners.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has announced earnings for the nine months to the end of September up 21.1 per cent with customer deposits up 18.2 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. Profit reached AED1.34bn compared to AED1.11bn for the same period last year. The CEO of ADIB said that all customer-facing units, retail banking, private banking, community banking and wholesale banking continued to grow market share and as a consequence, ADIB’s customer financing assets increased 21.7 per cent year-on-year to AED71.6bn backed by an 18.2 per cent increase in customer deposits to AED82.9bn over the same period.
Saudi Arabia's Kafala loan guarantee program proves to be a vital conduit between banks and smaller businesses, a report recently produced by the global publishing firm Oxford Business Group (OBG) revealed. The Report: "Saudi Arabia 2014" provides extensive coverage on the national drive to boost lending activity and facilitate growth in the Kingdom's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The report also looks in detail at the impact of e-banking and online services. Facing lengthy bureaucratic procedures and licensing is a big problem for SMEs. Another problem is accounting, as most SMEs are single proprietor companies, and the distinction between company and private assets is often hazy.
Not even a fatwa against National Commercial Bank’s initial public offering could derail the biggest-ever share sale in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia’s largest bank said in a statement today it attracted 311 billion riyals ($83 billion) of bids from about 1.26 million investors. While that pales by comparison with the almost 9 million who subscribed for Alinma Bank’s IPO in 2008, NCB’s offering to sell 300 million shares was 23-times oversubscribed, signaling investors pitched for larger blocs of shares. The IPO is considered un-Islamic, as criticism deepened over the bank’s non Shariah-compliant assets. To mitigate the controversy, NCB pledged to divest about $38 billion of assets to become fully Shariah-compliant in five years.
Dubai has repaid $1.93 billion raised from Islamic bonds and renewed its commitment to pay back billions of dollars worth of debt on time. Dubai reportedly repaid 2.5 billion dirhams ($68 million, 54 million euros) in dirham sukuk and $1.25 billion in dollar sukuk. It said both sukuk matured on Monday. Dubai has repaid or restructured billions of dollars of debt, as the emirate’s economy recovers from its 2009 debt emergency in the midst of the global financial crisis. The International Monetary Fund estimates that Dubai and its government-linked entities face a total maturing debt of around $80 billion.
UAE-based Aafaq has carried out its first transaction on the NASDAQ Dubai Murabaha Platform, which provides Islamic financing services to individual and institutional customers. Officially launched in April 2014 by NASDAQ Dubai jointly with Emirates Islamic, the platform has completed a total of more than AED 21 billion of transactions. The platform makes use of Shari’ah-compliant Certificates that have been developed for the underlying assets of the financing transactions. Islamic banks, Islamic windows of conventional banks, and Islamic finance companies and their clients can make use of the platform through trading Certificates.
DIFC Investments, the investment arm of Dubai’s financial free zone, has set final guidance for a $700 million (Dh2.57 billion) 10-year sukuk in the range of 185 to 190 basis points (bps) over midswaps on Tuesday, according to lead arrangers. Pricing has tightened with investor orders topping $3 billion, lead arrangers said. Earlier on Tuesday, the sukuk had been marked at 195 bps plus or minus 5 bps over midswaps. On Monday, it was marked initially at the very low 200s over the same benchmark. Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, Noor Bank and Standard Chartered are arranging the sale.
EIIB-Rasmala, the Dubai-based investment bank and asset manager, will expand its leasing and property fund products amid increased investor demand in the Arabian Gulf region. The group yesterday said that it was finalising the launch of two leasing fund strategies and planning to expand its UAE property business. This came amid a surge in demand driven by progressive regulatory activity of regional markets, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, as well as greater investor confidence in the underlying market fundamentals of the region. EIIB-Rasmala said that it expected to raise about US$1 billion for its growing leasing and alternatives business and approximately $250 million to invest in a broad mix of property transactions in the United Kingdom.
Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak thinks that the maximum potential of the Islamic economy, including finance, banking, industry, waqaf and the insurance takaful, is still not fully realised. However, there are many challenges that need to be addressed: strong support from the political leadership to make things happen; institution building; human capital development; the shortage of expertise in many areas like Islamic finance, standardisation and regulatory framework; syariah experts to make sure your products are syariah-compliant, among others. Regarding SMEs, Malaysia has a masterplan for their development, with the goal to make SMEs achieve about 41 per cent of GDP by 2020.
Saudi Arabia will again host the CSR Forum to be held 24- 26 November 2014 in Jeddah. The forum will gather representatives of corporate organizations, ministries and other government bodies, NGOs, foundations, universities and SMEs, who will discuss topics including how to embed corporate and social sustainability into CSR programmes to drive community development, strengthen education delivery and empower the Kingdom's youth. Employment generation and the development of women are other key topics on the agenda. More information can be found on www.csrsummitsaudi.com .
Under the sponsorship of Alinma Bank, the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) held its Shariah standards hearing session in Riyadh. Participating in the event were Shariah-finance professionals from Alinma Bank, AAOIFI and other financial and research institutions from Saudi Arabia and abroad. Attendees discussed, debated and made comments on draft policies related to deposit and repurchase agreements. The meeting was the first time AAOIFI held for its Shariah standards hearing session outside Bahrain, and the move to Saudi Arabia represented an attempt on AAOIFI’s part to expand its activities and cooperation.
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has introduced a child education plan, Walady. It is a long-term savings and investment plan coupled with Takaful protection for the parent, and offers a return on contributions depending on the fund’s performance. Upon maturity of the contract, the outstanding value of the participant’s investment account is paid in a lump sum to take care of the education needs of the child; in the case of the early death of the parent, the amount of life cover is paid upfront to the nominee as per the terms and conditions of the contract; and in the event of the parent’s total disability, regular contributions will be paid until maturity of the plan subject to satisfying the claim conditions. Walady was underwritten by Medgulf Takaful.
There has been a surge in UAE's Islamic banking and capital market activities, but more government support at policy level could help speedy growth of the industry, said Hussain Al Qemzi, Group CEO, Noor Investment Group and CEO Noor Bank. Data suggests that Islamic banks’ asset growth is outstripping their conventional peers in the Gulf region especially in Saudi Arabia and Qatar due to government support. As the biggest borrowers, government entities in the Gulf need to push Islamic structures. Going forward, more Islamic issuances, especially by players who have already transacted conventional issuances, will provide greater depth to the market and confidence to investors who are yet to invest in Islamic instruments.
Jadwa Investment’s Head of Research, Dr. Fahad M. Alturki, and Saudi-US Trade Group President Richard Wilson spoke about the Saudi economy and investment in the Kingdom as well as the planned opening of the Saudi stock market to qualified foreign investors. Dr. Fahad said that the average growth in the Saudi economy is going well, with a growth rate of around six percent per annum on average. All the economic or macro indicators like interest rate, fiscal accounts and monetary policy, point to a very strong macro picture in the Saudi economy. However, there is difficulty for SMEs to access banking credit. He considers it a positive development to open the market, and allowing foreign investors’ access to bonds and Sukuk issued by local companies in domestic currency.
Economic strategist James Rickards, pointing to another collapse of the international monetary system will reveal to global financial experts in Dubai next month how new "rules of the game" will be written to prevent disaster. The American lawyer, economist, investment banker and author, says investors should not be surprised if another collapse happens soon, following previous breakdowns of the system in 1914, 1939 and 1971. His presentation will show what those new rules of the game might look like, and helps investors understand what they can do today in their portfolios to preserve wealth in the collapse and prosper in the new system. Rickards is one of the speakers at the ICA Conference taking place in Dubai from 6-9 November.