The Emirates Islamic Bank recently organised an ‘Innovation Day’ where various internal teams shared and showcased their innovations with working prototypes, to the bank’s management.
Emirates Islamic staff across business units participated in the event, designed to ideate and showcase innovative solutions in banking and financial technology. Emirates Islamic’s Innovation Day was aligned with the National Innovation Strategy launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai as a primary tool to achieve UAE Vision 2021 in the finance and banking sector.
Commenting on the bank’s push toward innovation, Jamal Bin Ghalaita, CEO of Emirates Islamic said: “Banking today demands an innovative and fresh approach to keep pace with the evolving needs of our customers. Tapping into our internal talent pool for ideas allows us benefit from their varied skills and experience to create products that match customers’ expectations and needs.
Emirates Islamic (EI) plans to complete a Dh1.5 billion ($408 million) fund-raising from existing shareholders by early December. Chief executive Jamal Bin Ghalaita said EI was not expecting a pick up in the banking market until the second half of 2017 at the earliest, once an upswing in oil prices happens. EI announced plans for the rights issue on Thursday, saying it would increase its paid up share capital to Dh5.43 billion from Dh3.93 billion. EI, which has recorded falling net profits for the past three quarters, is due to report third-quarter results later this month. Bin Ghalaita said the outlook remained uncertain. He added that EI planned no further job losses after some cuts mainly within the department servicing small and medium-sized enterprises.
According to the findings of Emirates Islamic’s second Islamic Banking Index, there has been an increasing public acceptance and demand for Islamic banking in the UAE. Chief executive of Emirates Islamic, Jamal Bin Ghalaita, said 51% of banking consumers had at least one Islamic product, demonstrating that the efforts by Islamic banks to improve their customer outreach were paying off. As far as perception is concerned, Islamic banks’ trustworthiness rose 42% among Muslim consumers compared to 37% in 2015. Among the non-Muslim population, there was a sizable increase in the number of non-Muslim consumers willing to consider subscribing to an Islamic banking product. The survey also highlights the key challenges for Islamic banks. For a second consecutive year, Islamic banks lag behind conventional banks in technology, innovation and customer service.
Dubai-based Emirates Islamic Bank has priced a $250 million tap of an existing Islamic bond issued in May. The tap was priced at 170 basis points over midswaps, the order book was worth $706 million. The 'new' deal is a copy of an existing bond with the same terms and conditions. Emirates Islamic's tap came off a $750 million five-year sukuk issued on May 23. That deal was priced at 220 bps over midswaps and carried a coupon of 3.542 percent. Chief Executive Jamal bin Ghalaita said the cash would support the bank's long-term growth and development plans. The new offering was arranged by Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, EMCAP and Standard Chartered.
Emirates Islamic Bank completed a $50 mn (Dh183 mn) Collateralised Murabaha deal with France-based Natixis on the Nasdaq Dubai. This was the largest collateralised Murabaha transaction closed by Emirates Islamic this year, and the first of its kind executed on the Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha Platform. CEO of Emirates Islamic Jamal Bin Ghalaita said the transaction sets a precedent for other financial institutions considering Sharia-compliant financing.
Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) is willing to invest in the Moroccan Islamic banking sector in the two upcoming years. EIB’s CEO, Jamal Bin Ghalaita, said the bank is planning to explore the potentials of the Moroccan Islamic finance through a policy of acquisitions and obtaining operating licenses from regulating authorities. He added that the Moroccan Islamic banking market is among the markets with the greatest potentials for Islamic banking outside the GCC. Ghalaita also said the bank has the same planned investments in other countries with strong economic ties with the United Arab Emirates and GCC countries. He said the bank is also assessing opportunities for expansion in the coming period in Egypt and Turkey.
Emirates Islamic marked International Women’s Day by celebrating female achievement across the organisation. Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Chief Executive Officer, Emirates Islamic and other senior management of the bank honoured 32 women employees at Emirates Islamic, who are seen as an inspiration to the rest of the organization. The women were presented a trophy and certificate of recognition at a special ceremony held at Emirates Islamic’s Healthcare City headquarters. The ceremony was part of Emirates Islamic’s initiative to commemorate International Women’s Day.
Emirates Islamic Bank contributed AED 7 million to Dubai Healthcare Authority to support Rashid Hospital in purchasing computed tomography (CT scan) machines, which will be used for medical imaging procedures at the government healthcare institution. The donation reflects Emirates Islamic Bank’s commitment towards the development of the UAE healthcare industry by working alongside government hospitals. The financial aid to Rashid Hospital follows similar initiatives by Emirates Islamic Bank to healthcare institutions in the UAE in recent years. Emirates Islamic Bank’s recent contribution to Rashid Hospital is also in keeping with its objective to support charitable causes via a dedicated Zakat Fund at the bank. In 2012 alone, the bank’s Zakat Fund contributed over AED10 million to various charitable causes.
Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) reported a first quarter net profit of Dhs33.2 million, a 101 per cent increase compared to the previous year. The total income for the three months rose up by 42 per cent to reach Dhs443 million. EIB also reported a 42 per cent increase in operating profit before an impairment of Dhs195 million in the first quarter. The bank’s non-performing ratio as of March 31, 2013, improved to 19.2 per cent, from 20.4 per cent on December 31, 2012. EIB’s customer deposits stood at Dhs26.3 billion while the customer financing increased five per cent to Dhs20.7 billion. The bank maintained a financing-to-deposit ratio of 93 per cent, and a capital adequacy ratio of 16.3 per cent. According to Jamal Bin Ghalaita, chief executive officer of Emirates Islamic Bank, the bank has targeted segments of SME and priority customers and also continued to develop its commercial segment.
According to an official announcement, by the end of November 2012 Dubai Bank will be rebranded as Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB). By merging the two Islamic banking holdings of the Emirates NBD Group, a stronger, more resilient proposition for customers will be provided. With the completion of the alignment process, customers will be able to enjoy an expanded network of 50 branches, 100 ATMs and CDMs across the UAE. Also, there will be free access to over 700 ATMs and CDMs which are part of the Emirates NBD Group.
Read more on: http://www.emirates247.com/business/economy-finance/dubai-bank-to-be-reb...
Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) has chosen a new CEO and elected a board of directors.
The new CEO is Jamal Bin Ghalaita, after EIB's former chief executive resigned in May and his deputy was appointed acting CEO.
The bank's shareholders also accepted the resignation of the board of directors and selected as representatives a new board consisting of seven members.
The shareholders of the AlBaraka Banking Group re-elected Saleh Abdullah Kamel as the group’s chairman of the for another three year term during a meeting held at Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday. The shareholders’s meeting was attended by 91% of the group’s total shareholding.
The new board includes Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Abdullah A. Saudi, Abdullah Saleh Kamel, Saleh Mohammed Al Yousef, Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Anwar Ibrahim, Abdul Ellah Sabbahi, Ebrahim Fayez Al Shamsi, Yousif Ali Fadil bin Fadil, Jamal bin Ghalaita, Bassem I. Awadallah , Mohyedin Saleh Kamel, Fahad Abdullah Al-Rajhi.
Emirates NBD has launched a fund to take advantage of the high yields currently available in Sukuk following the steep price declines in Q4 2008 caused by the wider turmoil in global financial markets. The Shari’a-compliant Fund targets annualized returns of c.12% over the next four years.
Jamal Bin Ghalaita, General Manager of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management at Emirates NBD, sees Sukuk as undervalued after panic selling last year.
Minimum investment of USD 25,000 for individual investors and USD 1,000,000 for institutional investors. The secondary sukuk market is difficult to access but, by investing through the Fund, investors benefit from scale, diversification, and the skills of expert fund managers. Should the Fund meet certain return targets, the Fund will be called and gains will be locked in for investors.
Property Report reported on 11 April that the Emirates NBD Group launches the Sharia compliant Emirates Islamic Global Property Fund, an open-ended daily dealing investment fund to provide investors with access to property globally.
The fund will be managed by Emirates Investment Services Ltd (´EIS´), the asset management arm of Emirates NBD group and a company licensed and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. It uses an Islamic certificate that derives its returns based on the profit from a reference index linked to the value of physical commercial property and real estate globally.
EIS has partnered with New Star Asset Management to structure this product as the manager of the reference fund to which returns of the Fund will initially be linked.
Jamal Bin Ghalaita is Head of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management at Emirates NBD.
Source: http://www.property-report.com/aprarchives.php?id=1373&date=110408