From Ashdowngroup.com: Islamic finance is an increasingly important aspect of some accountancy jobs, according to one expert.

Daud Vicary Abdullah, who has just been appointed as the global leader of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s Islamic finance industry group, explained that the sector is rapidly expanding………………………….Full Article: Source

From Gaapweb.com: Islamic finance is a growing issue in the world of accountancy, it has been suggested. Daud Vicary Abdullah has just been appointed as global leader of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s Islamic Finance industry group.

He believes that the field should present new areas of growth for financial services firms for some time to come………………………….Full Article: Source

From Reuters: The Islamic Financial Services Board, which sets standards for the sharia finance industry, has adopted new guidelines to enhance the sector’s stability.

The guidelines relate to the Islamic insurance industry, the conduct of Islamic financial institutions and the sharia governance system, the board said in a statement. The full guidelines are available on the board’s website at www.ifsb.org…………………………Full Article: Source

From Bernama: The ability of Islamic financial institutions to manage liquidity needs to be addressed urgently, says Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

She said the recent financial turmoil in advanced economies has clearly demonstrated the consequences of liquidity constraints and underscored the importance of a strong and well-developed liquidity management infrastructure………………………….Full Article: Source

From Forbes: Malaysian and UK Islamic banks signed off on a standardised wakala deposit agreement on Tuesday, which some bankers said could help the industry reduce its reliance on the controversial commodity murabaha structure.

Lenders such as Malaysia’s Maybank Islamic, Bank Islam and CIMB Islamic, UK’s Gatehouse and Indonesia’s PT Bank Syariah Muamalat agreed to use the template for interbank and corporate wakala deposit placements, said an Islamic banking body………………………….Full Article: Source

From Arabianbusiness.com: Islamic banks in the Middle East are “extremely well positioned” to take capture a share of women’s rapidly growing demand for top-notch banking services, says a new publication from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

With an estimated $5 trillion in incremental earnings to spend, educated, ambitious, working women represent a commercial opportunity for goods and services providers that eclipses the rise of the consumer economies of both China and India, the research house said………………………….Full Article: Source

From Maktoob.com: Qatar will propose Gulf states create a regional development bank similar to that in Europe at next month’s rulers summit in Kuwait, the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council said on Tuesday.

Abdulrahman Al Attiyah, secretary-general of the economic bloc, made the remarks on Al Arabiya televison………………………….Full Article: Source

From KUNA: Islamic banks are thriving in Lebanon after proving efficiency in facing the ramifications of the global financial crisis.

Banks that are based on Islamic teachings of Shareia, though newly established, they covered a wide-range of customers and were licensed by the Central Bank of Lebanon (BDL), Director General of the Islamic bank Al-Baraka Mutasim Mihmisani told KUNA………………………….Full Article: Source

From Bi-me.com: Dubai Bank announced today that it has won a pair of significant awards from Ethos Consultancy, based on that firm’s in-depth study of the service offerings at 27 leading banks in the UAE.

In recognition of the bank’s commitment to customer service excellence, Dubai Bank has been named “Best Islamic Bank” in the UAE, as well as “Most Improved Bank,” in recognition of the dramatic improvement in the overall ranking of Dubai Bank among all UAE-based banks………………………….Full Article: Source

From Gulf-times.com: The GCC banks, which are expected to register 13%-15% growth in their profits in 2009, remains robust to “comfortably” absorb severe asset deterioration and provisions, according to Global Investment House report.
“The GCC banking sector as a whole remains robust despite its asset quality issues. With high capital adequacy ratios, the banking sector remains in a comfortable position to absorb severe asset deterioration,” Global said………………………….Full Article: Source

From Tradearabia.com: German lender Deutsche Bank can convert a $100 million convertible murabaha into shares in Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) at $0.38 per share, GFH said.

The Bahrain-based Islamic investment house said in a statement posted on Bahrain’s
stock exchange that Deutsche could convert the murabaha, an Islamic financing instrument, or parts thereof, into equity at any time over the next three years………………………….Full Article: Source

From Reuters: German lender Deutsche Bank AG has converted a third of its $100 million convertible murabaha into shares of Gulf Finance House (GFH), the Bahrain-based Islamic investment house said on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank has converted $30 million of the murabaha, an Islamic financing instrument, into 78,947,368 million shares, its said in a regulatory filing………………………….Full Article: Source

From Thepeninsulaqatar.com: The global financial crisis has also adversely impacted Zakat collection this year. There has been a drop of QR5m in Zakat collection during the seven-month period from April to October this year, the state-run Zakat Fund has reported.

Although, Zakat Fund officials did not specify reasons for the drop, it is understood it could be an outcome of the world economic turmoil………………………….Full Article: Source

From Globalarabnetwork.com: Moody’s Investors Service has today assigned ratings to the US$4.0 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme (EMTN) of Gulf International Bank B.S.C (GIB).
Moody’s has assigned ratings of A3 and Baa1 to the senior unsecured and subordinated notes, respectively, to be issued under the programme. The ratings of the notes carry a stable outlook………………………….Full Article: Source

From Ameinfo.com: Fitch Ratings has assigned Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank’s (GIB) $4bn euro medium term note programme a Long-term senior debt rating ‘A’ and a subordinated debt rating ‘A-’.
Fitch notes there is no assurance that notes issued under the programme will be assigned a rating, or that the rating assigned to a specific issue under the programme will have the same rating as the programme’s rating………………………….Full Article: Source

From Globalarabnetwork.com: Moody’s Investors Service today confirmed the Baa2 long-term deposit and senior unsecured debt ratings, and Prime-2 short-term deposit rating of Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC).

At the same time, Moody’s downgraded GIC’s bank financial strength rating (BFSR) to D- from D. The D- rating now maps to a Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) of 13, down from 12 (on a scale of 1 to 21, where 1 reflects the lowest level of risk)………………………….Full Article: Source

From Tradearabia.com: The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), a leading financial institution and the first Bahraini bank, has won the PAN Arab Web Awards Academy’s “Best Retail Bank Website” in Bahrain award for the year 2009.

The PAN Arab Web Awards Academy aims to promote the banking websites and the creativity in web design and web development in the banking and finance industry………………………….Full Article: Source

From Tradearabia.com: Iraq is on the verge of a boom in project finance as power plants, shopping malls and general infrastructure investment starts to kick in and violence continues to subside, the country’s trade bank said.

Increasing numbers of foreign bankers have been flying into Baghdad to check out business opportunities and the security environment has improved sufficiently for investors, both overseas Iraqis and foreigners, to accept the risks, said Hussein al-Uzri, chairman of the state-run Trade Bank of Iraq………………………….Full Article: Source

From Dailytimes.com.pk: The global financial meltdown has presented an unprecedented opportunity for Islamic Finance to establish itself as a truly global leader in the financial services industry, thereby realising its full, unique potential.
The speakers at Islamic Finance seminar arranged by ACCA Pakistan expressed these views………………………….Full Article: Source