From Ameinfo.com: The Islamic private equity industry is a very young one and traces its roots back less than a decade. In 2003 Kuwait’s Global Investment
House appears to have been one of the first institutions to explore Islamic private equity through the launch of a Kuwaiti dinar denominated Private Equity Fund where the investments were channelled into little-known unlisted Kuwaiti companies…………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Is diversity of opinion boon or bane for Islamic finance? Market participants gathered for a conference at Thomson Reuters’ London headquarters earlier this week discussed the need for more convergence in the industry estimated to be worth $1 trillion.
Of particular focus was the role of sharia scholars who rule on whether investment products are in line with Islamic teachings…………Full Article: Source

From Thenational.ae: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, yesterday appointed two men, his top financial official and a government banker who specialises in selling property loans, to run the new fund distributing US$20 billion (Dh73.46bn) in emergency funds to government-related companies.

Sheikh Mohammed issued a royal decree naming Abdul Rahman al Saleh, the director general of Dubai’s Department of Finance, as the chairman of the Dubai Financial Support Fund, which was established last month…………Full Article: Source

From Cpifinancial.net: Gulf Finance House (GFH) is planning to raise up to $300 million of fresh capital in a rights issue, which it says is “designed to strengthen the balance sheet and enable the bank to engage in a number of high value investment opportunities presented by the global economic downturn.”

GFH said the rights issue, which has already received the Central Bank of Bahrain’s ‘in principal’ approval, will also support long term expansion and diversification plans of the bank as it “looks to new geographies.” The rights issue remains subject to shareholder approval…………Full Article: Source

From Ameinfo.com: Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House has said in a statement to the bourse that it has appointed Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to advise on a plan to boost capital by $300m, Bloomberg has reported.
The lender has also hired KPMG International to manage the offering of stock to existing shareholders…………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Malaysian sharia bank RHB Islamic launched an Islamic tawarruq financing instrument on Wednesday that uses telecommunication airtime as its underlying asset.

Tawarruq is an asset sale to a purchaser with deferred payment terms. The purchaser then sells the asset to a third party to get funds…………Full Article: Source

From Thestar.com.my: Malaysia can assert a leadership role in the world of Islamic finance as it has the standing in the Muslim world since it is one of the pioneers of the modern Islamic banking system.

Fajr Capital Ltd chief executive officer Iqbal Khan said Malaysia could assume a more assertive leadership role as it had a large amount of goodwill among Muslim nations…………Full Article: Source

From Globalarabnetwork.com: Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today noted that it is rating more and more insurance and reinsurance companies that operate under “takaful” principles, which help render their activities compliant with Islamic Sharia law.
A new report, titled “Analyzing Sharia -Compliant Takaful Insurance And Reinsurance Companies: Concepts And Considerations,” considers the practical implications for our analysis of this concept of insurance activity…………Full Article: Source

From Thenational.ae: There’s a growing level of concern in local financial circles about how Dubai will handle the December maturity of Nakheel’s $3.5 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk. Many say it has no choice but to pay off Nakheel’s bondholders, who bought the bonds on the understanding that government-owned Nakheel enjoyed the backing of the government.
In some ways, therefore, the situation is akin to the troubles experienced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which last year fell victim to the subprime lending crisis…………Full Article: Source

From Gulf-times.com: The Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) yesterday granted licence to Allianz Takaful to carry on regulated activities. Allianz Takaful, the first Takaful firm to be authorised by the QFCRA, will be primarily advising on investments in respect of contracts for long term insurance.
QFCRA chairman Phillip Thorpe said the arrival of institutions like Allianz confirmed the QFC’s reputation as a world class financial centre and will help to accelerate the development of the regions’ insurance market…………Full Article: Source

From Gulf-times.com: Masraf Al Rayan, which holds around 5% share in domestic banking assets and 25% in Shariah-compliant banking assets, has been rated for the first time by global credit rating agency Moody’s.
Moody’s assigned ‘A3’ long-term and ‘Prime-2’ short-term local and foreign currency issuer ratings as well as a ‘D+’ bank financial strength rating (BFSR) to Rayan, which has become one of Qatar’s most successful Islamic lender since its operations in 2006, according to the rating agency…………Full Article: Source

From Gulf-daily-news.com: Gulf International Bank (GIB) reported consolidated operating income of $89.7 million for the six months of this year, down slightly compared to $102.6m in the first half of last year.

Total income of $150m was 16 per cent lower than in the prior year period while total expenses at $60.3m were 20pc down on the prior year…………Full Article: Source

From Gulfnews.com: Shuaa Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Iyad Duwaji resigned seven weeks after the UAE’s biggest investment bank settled a bond dispute with Dubai Banking Group.

Duwaji resigned for personal reasons after more than a decade at the helm of affairs and will remain as CEO until a successor is appointed, Dubai-based Shuaa said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. He will continue to be a board member…………Full Article: Source

From Tradearabia.com: Shamil Bank, a leading Bahrain-based Islamic commercial bank and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ithmaar Bank, has reported a net profit of $6.104 million for the first six months of 2009.

For the second quarter ending June, the bank has earned a net profit of $237,000…………Full Article: Source

From Cpifinancial.net: Bank of London and The Middle East plc (BLME), the London-based Shari’ah-compliant wholesale bank, has announced the appointments of Muriel Simon, Fazal Ahmed and Ihab Al-Derzi as Private Bankers to its private banking division, following its launch in January this year.
Muriel Simon joins BLME Private Banking from UBS London, where she focused on UK resident non-domiciled high net worth clients…………Full Article: Source

From Arabianbusiness.com: Moody’s on Wednesday assigned A3 long-term and Prime-2 short-term local and foreign currency issuer ratings as well as a D+ bank financial strength rating (BFSR) to Masraf Al Rayan (MAR), with a stable rating outlook.

This is the ratings agency’s first public rating assigned to an Islamic bank in Qatar…………Full Article: Source