IslamicFinance.de

The 6th Global Islamic Microfinance Forum (GIMF) will convene in Nairobi, Kenya on November 8-9, 2016. Muhammad Zubair Mughal, the CEO of Al-Huda, said the GIMF will explore how new and effective strategies can alleviate poverty. He said the most alarming situation is that major chunk of poverty exist in Muslim countries, as it is considered the number one agenda of "financial inclusion." In these countries a proper platform is needed, valuing their cultural and social values, which is possible only through Islamic Microfinance. Amjad Saqib, Executive Director of Akhuwat declared that Akhuwat has so far distributed almost Rs. 25 billion among 1,323,586 families. He presented the "Qarz-e-Hassan" model as a true model of Islamic Welfare oriented Microfinance system. The Forum will be followed by two days post event workshop, How to Develop, Operate and Sustain Islamic Microfinance Institutions planned for November 10-11, 2016.

Iranian banks have opened more than 480 million euros of credit through Iran-Europe Commercial Bank (IECB). An amount of 108 million euros of the total €480 million belongs to Bank of Industry and Mine while the rest are owned by other banks in the country including Mellat and Tejarat banks. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced that the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is up and running and there exist no barriers to opening LCs via SWIFT. Registered in Hamburg, Germany, the IECB officially welcomed international banking relations with Iran.

The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) of the Islamic Development Bank Group has signed an agreement with leading provider of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), edX, to deliver Islamic banking and finance courses. On February 23, 2016, IRTI will begin offering, through the edX learning platform, free courses under two series, namely ‘Islamic Finance and Banking X’ and ‘Islamic Financial and Capital Markets X’. The IRTI MOOCs program is part of a project aimed at expanding access to knowledge in Islamic economics and finance to support the development of a dynamic Islamic financial industry globally. To register for the IRTI MOOCs, please visit http://irti.org/English/News/Pages/IRTI-is-launching-Massive-Open-Online....

The Digital Finance Institute, a Canadian not-for-profit, has entered into an arrangement with an Iranian firm and as the first part of the arrangement is joining forces with Sana Pardakht. The two sides will have bilateral cooperation on the role of innovation labs to drive technology, banking and finance, Bitcoin, smart cities and renewable energy, emerging payments, Iran’s potential to emerge as a finance hub post-sanctions, business opportunities in Iran and the growing importance of social banking with a case study on payments to solve financial inclusion for the refugee crisis.