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Faced with lean pickings, savers are advised to review their options wisely. One way to make cash generate the best return is exploring the available accounts and the interests paid, including e-saver accounts and certificates of deposits. Moreover, debts should be paid off in order not to spend on high interests. Some banks also offer special savings schemes or award prizes, that can help to increase the wealth. Last but not least, looking overseas for high interest rates can be a good option, but currency risk and conversion charges need to be considered here.

Kuwait’s Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Co. announced that Ahmad Alzabin will no longer be chief executive officer. The deputy CEO of the company - Abulqassim Abdul Ghaffar - will take over his position. Alfaco has not given any information on whether or not Alzabin has stepped down from his position as a chairman.

The central bank of Oman decided upon a strict approach to regulating Islamic banking in rules for the sector. The rules released on December 19th will set higher standards for the industry than many other countries. Last year, the Sultanate announced the introduction of Islamic finance, thus becoming the last GCC country to make this step. According to expectations, business activity will start at the beginning of 2013.

An improved version of Attijari Al Islami's Ijarah Home products has been introduced to the public. Thus, UAE nationals and residents are enabled to afford their dream home compliant to the principles of Shariah. The improved version contains some new features and aims to address the growing demand for Shariah-compliant financial instruments in the UAE. Transparent and competitive rates are offered in order to be able to guarantee great value to the clients of the Commercial Bank of Dubai.

The case of missing deposits worth over Dh1 million in total has been solved. On Wednesday, a banker was charged with embezzlement in a Dubai court. The 39-year-old Jordanian banker with Dubai Islamic Bank is said to have embezzled funds by squirrelling away payments from customers who had completed their bank loans via a loan recovery agency. The criminal acts took place during the period between 2009 and 2011 when the banker was working at Dubai Islamic Bank.

Read more on: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/crime/banker-charged-with-embezzling-m...

Abu Dhabi will be the host of the annual general meeting of the World Future Council (WFC). The event will be held in the Middle East for the first time in the coming month. Prominent personalities from all over the world will take part in the discussion of the interests of future generations in sustainable policy-making. The title of the meeting is ‘Securing Our World: The Crucial Next 5 years’ and it will be conducted from November 21 to 25. WFC has had success in inspiring a number of governments to frame legislations and policies in order to conserve natural resources.

Read more on: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/abu-dhabi-to-host-sustaina...

According to expectations, financing SMEs shall be a measure to deal with unemployment in the MENA region. Reports suggest rapid growth of the market share of Islamic banking in Egypt due to the change in public policy. Smaller markets such as Oman and Morocco are also considered important in this context. Observers point out that Islamic finance is a potential source of spurring economic growth in the countries which experienced the Arab Spring. However, it is highly doubtful whether Islamic finance can solve the unemployment issue especially among young people. The question is rather if it should make conscious efforts to contribute to dealing with unemployment as part of its business strategy instead of a byproduct of its activities.

According to Arqaam Capital Ltd, EFG-Hermes Holding SAE plans to sell its 40% stake in 2013 in the investment bank it is forming with QInvest. Thus, it will turn into a holding company. EFG-Hermes' assets will be held in Lebanese unit Credit Libanais SAL and in a private equity unit managing $980 million (Dh3.6 billion).

Read more on: http://gulfnews.com/business/markets/efg-to-sell-qinvest-joint-venture-s...

SMEs move from their entrepreneurial phase to a professionally-managed phase. As a result, there is a huge necessity for them to adopt the concept of corporate governance. According to a report by Capita Group International (CGI), Gulf SMEs are not particularly efficient. There is a huge difference between their share of employment and their share of gross domestic product (GDP) to GDP's disadvantage. National Commercial Bank (NCB) shows in a report that the majority of GCC businesses, especially SMEs, demonstrate low efficiency, low growth, little innovation and weak management.

Read more on: http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/challenge-of-entrepreneurship-in...

On Tuesday Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) announcedthe launch of its new investment product, Al Islami Aurum+ 1 Dirham Certificate. It is an innovative investment product providing strategic exposure to the commodity markets while, at the same time, assuring a high level of capital protection. The Certificate is developed by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Its aim is to generate returns in any market environment by the means of taking exposure and switching between oil and gold.

More on: http://gulfnews.com/business/banking/dib-announces-new-investment-produc...

The world economy has not changed much in the last at least 20 years. Just as Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama faced the issue of economy in 2008 and does so in 2012 without the international economic situation being much improved. The reason for that are not the multiple shocks and crises economy went through themselves but rather the flaws of the conventional banking system. During the first two years of the last crisis over 200 US lenders experiences serious crashes. Experst support the opinion that as long as the system is based on greed instead of need, the situation will hardly change.

More on: http://gulfnews.com/business/features/greed-based-lending-should-be-repl...

Recently a number of GCC companies issued landmark corporate and infrastructure sukuk in Malaysian ringgit. According to a report by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, this might be a sign of a starting trend of development and globalization of the market. Islamic financial instruments are becoming more popular since conventional banks worldwide offer fewer and shorter loans. Especially for countries of GCC and Asia, Islamic financial instruments will very probably become a key funding source.

More on: http://gulfnews.com/business/banking/gcc-and-asia-likely-to-use-sukuk-fu...

Nine months ago Al Baraka Banking Group cancelled the debut sales of sukuk due to very high yields. Now that the situation has turned and Al Baraka Turk Katilim Bankasi again considers its previous intentions. It plans to offer $250 million (Dh917 million) of seven-year dollar-denominated sukuks this year.

In a recent announcement, Fajr Capital Limited has informed about its acquisition of Dubai International Capital’s stake in the Mena Infrastructure Fund. Fajr Capital will join the other two major partners of the fund, HSBC Bank Middle East and Abu Dhabi-based Waha Capital, being a limited partner with other regional and international investors. Fajr Capital’s transaction is expected to result in strengthening the company's position in the MENA region, building exposure in the key markets of Egypt, the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as increasing the company's assets.

Islamic lending companies from Dubai’s DIFC Investments LLC to Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat take advantage of falling borrowing costs. As a result, Islamic syndicated lending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose to a four-year high this year. Shariah-compliant transactions this year are as high as $8.37 billion (Dh30.74 billion). The largest share belongs to Etihad Etisalat and is worth 10 billion-riyal ($2.67 billion). This year’s lending is over $3 billion higher than last year's.

Property developer Nakheel, a subsidiary of Dubai World, on Tuesday named Ali Rashid Ahmad Lootah as its new chairman in a restructuring that also added four other members to the board. Lootah is also the vice-chairman of mashreq.

Investors could welcome the commencement of trading of Tamweel stock once the government releases the details of the company's merger with Amlak, analysts said Sunday.

Noor Investment Group's Noor Islamic Bank and Noor Takaful announced the creation of a new social media online forum shapeyourcountry.com to connect people living in the UAE across nationalities, age and econ-omic status, as well as Emiratis residing abroad.

Repayment of a $4.1 billion (around Dh15.05 billion) bond issued by Nakheel was set to be completed yesterday, when other Islamic bond issuers reassured investors about their repayment capability in replies to a ‘soundness and health' check by Nasdaq Dubai.

Saudi Electricity Co, the state- controlled power producer, may raise as much as USD 1.87 bn, SAR 7 bn, in the largest sale of Sukuk.

The 5-year Sukuk, which is expected to be rated AA- by Fitch rating service, may pay between 90 basis points to 100 basis points over Saudi interbank rates a market expert is quoted.

The spread above the London interbank offered, or Libor, on corporate and government sukuk has narrowed to 7.6 percentage points from an all-time high of 12.3 percentage points in February, according to HSBC-Nasdaq Dubai indexes.