IslamicFinance.de

A.M. Best Europe – Rating Services Limited has downgraded the financial strength rating of Islamic Arab Insurance Co. (Salama). This is due to the uncertainty regarding Salama’s main subsidiary, BEST RE Limited (Malaysia), and the potential implications for Salama’s capitalisation, operating performance and profile. Concurrently, A.M. Best has withdrawn the ratings as Salama has requested to no longer participate in their rating process.

T'azur Company b.s.c., (T'azur), a regional Takaful (Islamic Insurance) company headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain, announced today the signing of an Islamic re-insurance agreement with Hannover Retakaful, the Bahrain-based Islamic subsidiary of Hannover-Re, one of the world's leading re-insurers with premiums in excess of EUR10bn. T'azur fully Sharia-compliant re-insurance panel is led by Hanover Retakaful and also includes other highly rated Islamic reinsurance companies such as ACR Re, Takaful Re, MNRB and Best Re.

Nopporn Wong-Anan wrote in Arabianbusiness on 30 March that Saleh Malaikah, chairman of Islamic reinsurance operator BEST Re sees the takaful business growing by 17 % over the next 3 years. The growth prospects lying in the fact that insurance coverage is not widely used in the Middle East and shows therefore potential; Saudi Arabia has a market share of 20 % in takaful from the overall insurance market, and promises the highest growth rate. In Malaysia the takaful market share has reached 30 %.