IslamicFinance.de

The Maidah Foundation, a non-governmental organisation for muslim women entrepreneurs has urged the federal government to adopt a non-interest financing to boost micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) in the country. This is contained in a communique read to newsmen by the Secretary-General of the Foundation, Hajia Latifat Balogun, at its stakeholder forum in Abuja. The communique said the development had capacity to bring millions of unbanked Nigerians to the formal sector. The communique further said the foundation was prepared to support government efforts to formulate appropriate template for the adoption of the new finance regime. The objective of the foundation is to contribute towards the economic development of women entrepreneurs in the country.

The Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs is warning Saudis seeking to fulfil their zakat duty during the holy month of Ramadan against donating funds to those who solicit money via social networking tools. Those who wish to donate money are encouraged to give to the more than 700 licensed charitable organisations in the kingdom, to social security offices or to organisations involved in the Al-Khair al-Shamel (Global Goodness) project, the ministry said. These groups document donations in a transparent fashion under the state's auspices, it added. In Saudi Arabia, cash donation boxes are not allowed in mosques, markets and malls, as cash donations are accepted only at banks.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and Thomson Reuters’ second Ethical Finance Innovation Challenge and Awards (EFICA) have already received high levels of take-up with over 200 potential entrants downloading the application form, to date. The submission for the awards opened on 5th of July and will close on the 5th of August. ADIB and Thomson Reuters are calling on institutions, research centres, and individuals to submit entries in three categories. The first category of the awards, the Islamic Finance Industry Development Award, offers a prize of $100,000, the second award, the Ethical Finance Initiative Award, offers a prize of $50,000 and the final award is a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, is revising its base financing rate (BFR) to 6.85 per cent per annum from 6.6 per cent per annum effective tomorrow. Bank Islam in a statement today said the revision is in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s recent move to increase the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 3.25 per cent. The last revision in Bank Islam’s BFR was on May 16, 2011, when the rate was revised from 6.3 per cent to 6.6 per cent.

A Chittagong court yesterday placed Mohammad Solaiman, director of Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd, on a five-day remand in a case filed for misappropriating Tk 140 crore. Solaiman was on remand for seven days once before. Referring to an investigation of the bank, Farman R Chowdhury, managing director of the bank, said Solaiman had influenced the bank to lend Tk 140 crore to SK Steel and gave false assurances about the loan and Solaiman's company Paradise Corporation took over Tk 18 crore as bribe from SK Steel for this. On April 13, the case was filed accusing Solaiman and others.

Islamic finance is a trillion-dollar industry with many financial institutions, corporations and governments keen to embrace it as a profit-making alternative to mainstream financial dealings. The book "Heaven’s Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance" by Harris Irfan asks the reader to consider whether the Islamic world can bring something of benefit to the Western world, and vice versa. Irfan’s intentions might be noble, but I suspect that here in the West he faces a real struggle. The big banks and companies hit by the financial crisis are determined to recover and some are increasingly wary of Islamic banking for all kinds of reasons.

Looking back at Islamic finance in the UK over the last eight years is rather like looking at a roller coaster, with peaks of excitement and troughs of depression. On the one hand, in 2006 Gordon Brown MP, announced the ambition for Britain to be the global gateway to Islamic finance and trade. However, the excitement of these early developments was followed by a trough. The UK is already the world’s pre-eminent centre for international conventional finance. It also has a very strong position in international Islamic finance. These developments pose an important competitive challenge to Islamic finance centres such as Kuala Lumpur, Bahrain and Dubai. Each has a very strong domestic Islamic finance market, and a significant level of international reach, but lacks the overall scale and credibility of London.

Capital Intelligence (CI) has announced that it has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of Kuwait Finance House (KFH) of 'BBB+'. The rating is supported by KFH's dominance of the Islamic banking sector in Kuwait, as well as its large overall market share in both deposits and loans, and by the significantly improved equity base following the June 2013 rights issue. The rating is constrained by a less than satisfactory asset quality in terms of headline non-performing facility ratio and reserve coverage, and by poor profitability at the net level. Looking ahead, the growing international component of both revenues and balance sheet is likely to eventually become a supporting factor.

A study commissioned by Qatar Foundation on foreign labour recruitment to Qatar has called on the authorities to fix a minimum wage for all occupations in the construction sector and ensure timely payment of salaries. The report, titled “Migrant Labour Recruitment to Qatar”, was commissioned as part of the Qatar Foundation Migrant Worker Welfare Initiative. An assigned minimum wage for all occupations in the construction sector in Qatar, regardless of nationality, would help to prevent the exploitation of workers from particular countries, said the report. Moreover, cost of food should not be linked to wages.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC (ADIB)’s Egyptian unit sees demand for Shariah-compliant finance picking up, expecting to complete deals for about 5 billion pounds ($699 million) in the next year. The institution is working to provide syndicated financing for as much as five infrastructure projects in electricity, oil and gas, Nevine Loutfy, the only woman chief executive officer of a Shariah lender in the Middle East, said. ADIB Egypt was one of six lenders, including state-owned Banque Misr SAE that arranged a $110 million Islamic facility for East Delta Electricity Co. in February 2013, the nation’s first Islamic loan, she said. ADIB Egypt expects 2014 to be its second profitable year in a row, Loutfy said.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Noor Bank and Warba Bank, the mandated lead arrangers, announced the successful closure of a $155m Shariah-compliant receivable backed syndicated financing facility for a UAE-based Jafza entity. The facility is a transaction that enabled the obligor to securitise its future receivables guaranteed by multinational oil and gas companies. Noor Bank acted as lead arranger and bookrunner for the facility besides its role as the account bank, documentation bank, Shariah-coordinator, as well as investment and security agent. The facility was designed to refinance existing debt and finance the company’s future capital expenditure.

The chairman of the Board of Directors of Jaiz Bank Plc, Umaru Mutallab, has charged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other regulatory authorities in the banking sector to urgently consider developing Sharia-compliant liquidity management instruments for non-interest Islamic banks to invest in. Moreover, the process needed to be expedited to create a level playing field for all the participants in the financial service sub-sector including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that so badly needed non-interest loans for their businesses, he added. Meanwhile a communiqué issued by Maidah Foundation, a network of Nigerian Muslim women entrepreneurs, prayed the federal government to strengthen the role of Islamic organisations in the creation of funds for the Nigerian entrepreneurs.

Egypt’s minister of industry, commerce and small and medium enterprises, Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour has said the World Bank has approved a $300m interest-free loan to fund Egyptian micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The Egyptian government plans to cooperate with the World Bank in building infrastructure for small and medium enterprises, particularly in the impoverished Upper Egyptian governorates, Abdel-Nour said during his meeting with a delegation from the World Bank.

FALCOM Financial Services and SEDCO Capital signed a strategic partnership agreement, according to which SEDCO Capital will manage the investment portfolio of FALCOM Arab Markets registered at the Capital Market Authority. Yazan Abdeen, Fund Manager at SEDCO Capital, will manage FALCOM Arab Markets Fund. Yazan has an experience of more than 12 years in analyzing and evaluating companies in the Middle East and offering professional services to clients through managing equity funds in Middle East markets. Established in 2005, FALCOM Financial Services has a paid capital exceeding one billion SAR.

Qatar CSR network has launched The Qatar CSR Report 2013, entitled "The Initiative", in partnership with Qatar University and participation of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. The Report is available in both Arabic and English. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce intends to launch a Qatari CSR index that takes into account similar international experiments based on relevant UN standards. The Ministry also seeks to form a CSR network that covers Qatari companies in general and companies registered in the Qatari stock exchange in particular, in order to promote the exchange of ideas and help these companies work closely to meet CSR standards.

The UAE was the most active nation in the Middle East in terms of debt capital market activity in the first half, accounting for 55 per cent of activity at $12.1 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia with 28 per cent. Bonds issued in the Middle East during the first half of 2014 fell 16 per cent from the same period last year, to $22 billion, dragged down by a slow first quarter. Investment grade corporate debt totalled $16.4 billion and accounted for 90 per cent of the first half total. M&A activity totalled $14 billion in the quarter, 2-1/2 times the value registered during the previous quarter. However, the value of M&A deals during the first half of 2014 declined four per cent from the same period last year to $19.7 billion.

Path Solutions has maintained its 1st place position in the IBS Islamic Core Banking Systems Sales League Table 2014, with Swiss-based Temenos and Lebanon-based BML Istisharat securing second and third positions in the list. The IBS Islamic Core Banking Systems Sales League Table is an international ranking of Sharia-compliant core banking systems sales. It evaluates their strengths, weaknesses, various systems and verifies their user lists to form an unbiased picture of the merits of each supplier and its new name wins. The win marks Path Solutions' fifth appearance as No. 1 Best Selling Islamic Software Provider Worldwide on IBS's list.

SEDCO Holding Group’s Riyali Financial Literacy Program has recently signed partnership agreements with the Noble Center for Comprehensive Development and Al-Andalus Al-Khadra Training Center to provide training workshops for university students, as well as, elementary and secondary school students. Under the agreement, each center will aim to train 15,000 male and female university students and elementary school students during 2014 with each center approaching various schools and universities to offer free Riyali courses to students. The program, launched in late 2012, aims to improve financial practices among Saudi youth and kids, such as in financial planning, budgeting, investing and borrowing.

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has unveiled new regulations and conditions to promote value-added investment and said investment licences may be issued within five days if all the required papers are submitted. Governor of SAGIA, Abdullatif Al-Othman, said they have introduced a speedy customer service system for the benefit of all investors.

Growing their business remains the primary and dominant goal for high net worth business owners in the Middle East, according to a recent study on the wealth management needs and preferences of high net worth (HNW) business owners in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The report by Standard Chartered Private Bank and Campden Wealth Research showed that 82 per cent of Middle East based high net worth business owners surveyed have already internationalised their businesses, implying the need for international banking services that support the geographic reach and growth of these businesses. Increasing market share is the top growth objective (82 per cent) of participants, followed by increasing production capacity (65 per cent) and international expansion (58 per cent).