IslamicFinance.de

The leading Indian banks have the capacity to launch a South Asian Shariah Fund to capitalize the region's untapped market for Islamic finance which requires multi-billion dollars of financing annually. Indian banks are in a position to lead the Shariah fund for the region, given their global network which includes facilitating Islamic banking and financing in one way or another, observed Ariff Sultan, regional director for Asia Pacific at the US-based global Shariah compliance product screening group, IdealRatings. Sultan said IdealRatings has been approached by a number of Islamic Banking-linked investors to screen opportunities for placing their funds in the Indian market. But there are regulatory restrictions.

India is the first country in the world to enshrine corporate giving into law. Following a change in company law in April 2014, businesses with annual revenues of more than 10bn rupees (£105m) must give away 2% of their net profit to charity. Areas they can invest this money in include education, poverty, gender equality and hunger. Two years on, overall charitable spend by companies has increased. Yet fears that companies would find ways of avoiding shelling out for good causes appear equally well-founded. A survey found that 52 of the country’s largest 100 companies failed to spend the required 2% last year.

His Excellency Khaled Mohamed Al-Aboodi, CEO of The Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector (ICD) is in India to explore possibilities of expanding the Group activities and interests in India. H.E. Khaled Al-Aboodi’s will explore the possibilities of setting up Interest Free Banking in India, long term solution of accommodating Indian pilgrims, pilgrim education on rituals of Hajj and an initiative of Medical Mobile Units for use in Rural India on behalf of IDB Group. The ICD has decided to launch a US $ 1 billion fund for financing the construction and is in continuous discussion with the Consulate General of India in Jeddah who has been provided with a draft MOU for co-operation.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is set to initiate talks with the Reserve Bank of India to allow them to introduce Islamic Financing in India. Islamic finace refers to the ways by which corporations who are a part of the IDB group, including banks and other lending institutions, raise capital in accordance with or Islamic law. IDB is also looking at starting interest-free banking in the country wherein instead of extending cash loans, the lender buys and leases the product for which the loan is required. And it earns rental on it.

Freed of international sanctions, Iran has asked India to reactivate its accounts with Indian banks and allow Iranian banks to open offices here. Keen to quickly normalise banking and commercial relations with the world, Tehran also wants UCO BankBSE -3.50 % to open a representative office in Iran. Tehran has already opened an account with IDBI Bank. Central Bank of Iran's vice governor Gholamali Kamyab has conveyed to Indian authorities that Bank Pasargad and Parsian Bank were keen to open representative offices in India while Saman Bank was interested in opening a subsidiary, they said. State Bank of India (SBI) has accounts of 11 Iranian banks including Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

The Islamic Development Bank indicated that it may issue green sukuk bonds compliant with religious law and increase lending for climate-related projects with an announcement at the United Nations global warming conference in Paris at the end of the year.
“Estimates for the 2030 agenda indicate that we need to move from billions to trillions of dollars of support annually for sustainable development,” Savas Alpay, chief economist of the IDB, said in a phone interview. “Traditional sources of development finance will not be enough. We must also look at non-traditional sources. We will be using Islamic finance to bring new resources to the table.”
Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Malaysia’s state-owned sovereign wealth fund, issued green sukuk last November after introducing guidelines for socially responsible debt in August 2014. It was the second entity after the London-based International Financial Facility for Immunization announce plans to sell ethical-based sukuk.
Green Sukuk

Dubai Islamic Bank is exploring an entry into India as it seeks to benefit from the funding needs of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. India presents huge opportunities as an emerging economy because of infrastructure development and growing trade with the Middle East, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Chilwan said. Indians make up nearly a quarter of the U.A.E.’s population, and India is its biggest trading partner, with combined exports and imports of $63.7 billion in 2014. The two countries plan to create a $75 billion fund to invest in Indian infrastructure, according to a joint statement at the end of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.A.E. in August.

One serious complaint against the prevalent model of Islamic banking is that interest is being charged in the garb of service fee. In fact loans from Islamic banks are much costlier than those from conventional financial institutions, particularly public sector banks. Thus, one issue that must engage us is that if Islamic banking is a viable alternative for us, how can we justify the collapse of so many Islamic financial institutions in India in recent times. The real problem is that we are not prepared for a reasoned debate. Confusion continues to prevail with sharp division of opinion. The spate of failures of Islamic banks in India have caused untold suffering to small depositors. There is no alternative except to transact with conventional banks.

After overcoming an array of uncertainties and legal combats and complexities, the first ever Islamic finance compliant project is all set to take off in Kerala. If things go as planned, the Waqf Land Development Scheme by the Cheraman Financial Services Limited (CFSL) will be soon materialized in Kannur in northern Kerala. Kicking start a new model of investment a five storied shopping complex will be erected in Kannur. The funding by the company has been done mainly through BOT (build, operate and transfer) and joint ventures. After creating value on the property and sharing the rental income for 18 years, CFSL will give back the property to the Waqf Board.

The decision of State Bank of India (SBI) to put off the launch of a Shariah-compliant equity mutual fund has once again sparked debates on whether India should open doors to the concept of Islamic finance and facilitate a market for Shariah compliant financial products. The fund was designed to invest in Shariah compliant companies. Dinesh Kumar Khara, managing director and CEO of SBI Mutual Fund, said that SBI’s decision to defer the fund launch, originally planned in December, was a commercial call. On the other hand, Congress' member K Rahman Khan said in Parliament that the decision was due to political intervention.

Investors’ antennas had gone up in the investment markets when SBI Mutual Fund announced first official launch of a stock fund structured in line with Islamic rules (Shariah Equity Fund) in the first week of December. But this mutual fund arm of India’s largest bank, State Bank of India, took no time to defer the launch of SBI Shariah-compliant fund on the pretext of its ‘restructuring in a better and more attractive format’ is not digestible. This is a statement which makes even an ordinary mind to believe that the reason for deferring the offering could be political. Meanwhile, the two actively-managed Shariah mutual funds in the market have outperformed the Sensex recently.

The State Bank of India (SBI) will launch a Shariah-compliant mutual fund next month, the first time a state-owned bank will roll out an Islamic financial instrument for the country’s estimated 170-million Muslim population. An SBI official said the country’s biggest lender had received all clearances to launch its Shariah Equity Fund, including from the Reserve Bank of India and the government. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), the country’s apex body on Shariah law, lent its support to the move. The Bombay Stock Exchange launched India’s first Shariah index — S&P BSE 500 Shariah — in May 2013. Over the past year, it has given a return of a robust 46%.

Judith Rodin is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is in charge of giving away one of America’s historic fortunes. But nowadays Rockefeller doesn’t mean quite what it once did. The foundation ranks only 16th in assets among U.S. charities. After a century of giving away money, only 4.1 billion US-Dollars are left of the once enormous fortune. No. 1 in the ranking for charity is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with 37.2 Billion US-Dollars. The latest pilot project is Smart Power that aims to electrify villages in India.

India is preparing legislation to promote Islamic banking as a way to make its financial markets more inclusive and provide new capital-raising opportunities to companies. India’s Ministry of Finance has formed an internal committee to study the prospects for Islamic banking. Sources said the ministry is talking to the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India about introducing rules to streamline sukuk issuance by Indian entities, among other regulatory amendments. Although Islamic banking is not new to India, its services have not prospered. Existing regulation is prohibitive and there is a general lack of awareness about the benefits of Sharia-compliant finance. Sukuk could help close the US$300bn funding gap for the infrastructure sector.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun the process of reviewing regulations on Islamic banking in India. The central bank has set up an internal committee to examine the matter. The three-member panel comprises senior RBI officials, Rajesh Verma, a deputy general manager, department of banking operations, Archana Mangalagiri, general manager, non-banking supervision and Bindu Vasu, joint legal adviser. The demand for re-look at Islamic banking regulations have revived again with the Indian central bank opening up doors for differentiated banks in India – payments banks and smaller banks – to begin with. Supporters of Islamic banking are making a case for Islamic banking in the face of the reforms in the banking sector.

Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) has announced the signing of two development agreements for real estate development in India. The flagship investment of GFH in India is the Energy City and Mumbai IT & Telecom City (India Project) developments in New Mumbai, the agreement of which was signed with Wadhwa Group. The second agreement was agreed with Adani Infrastructure & Developers , to explore development opportunities in relation to various infrastructure and real estate projects in India. Adani Infrastructure & Developers will be partnering with Asiastar City Holdings to develop the Phase 2 of GFH’s India Project.

Gulf Finance House (GFH) has announced the signing of two development agreements for real estate development in India. The flagship investment of GFH in India is the Energy City and Mumbai IT & Telecom City (India Project) developments in New Mumbai. The agreement was signed with Wadhwa Group. According to this agreement, GFH and Wadhwa have agreed to the appointment of Hafeez Contractor to be the master planner for the Phase 1 of the India Project, with an expected end sale value of USD 4 billion. The second agreement was agreed with Adani Infrastructure & Developers.They intend to work together to explore development opportunities in relation to various infrastructure and real estate projects in India. Adani Infrastructure & Developers will be partnering with Asiastar City Holdings to develop the Phase 2 of GFH's India Project.

India's Ministry of Minority Affairs has enlisted a Kuala Lumpur-based body to help develop Islamic endowments, or awqaf, aiming to mobilise a large pool of assets in the country. India, with an estimated 177 million Muslims, has a large base of awqaf but many of their assets are far from being employed efficiently; their estimated annual income is just 1.63 billion rupees. Last month, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the National Wakaf Development Corporation, to help management of the properties become more transparent. Efforts to strengthen India's awqaf could conceivably be a precursor to developing an Islamic banking sector in the country. However, its secular laws still largely forbid the selling of sharia-compliant banking.

India's Ministry of Minority Affairs has enlisted a Kuala Lumpur-based body to help develop Islamic endowments, or awqaf, aiming to mobilise a large pool of assets in the country. India, with an estimated 177 million Muslims, has a large base of awqaf but many of their assets are far from being employed efficiently; their estimated annual income is just 1.63 billion rupees ($26.3 million). The World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation will hold a roundtable later this year to discuss ways to improve management of India's estimated 490,000 waqf properties. However, efforts to strengthen Islamic finance in India have in the past met strong opposition from bureaucrats in the finance ministry and banking circles.

Essel Finance is planning a Shariah fund for foreign investors in real estate. The Shariah fund will have a corpus of $100 million (Rs 620 crore). The fund is looking to close the fund forge partnerships with Shariah funds by February-March. Amit Goenka, chief executive officer, Essel Financial Services said the Shariah partner would offer the fund on its behalf and once the company gets its licence for the offshore fund it was planning, it would bring the Shariah component under its fold. Essel's offshore vehicle may also get its investors to directly invest in real estate projects here and not route it through the fund. The offshore fund has planned a corpus of $200 million. Its domestic fund does debt deals and charges developers with coupon rates of 18 to 19 per cent.