From Reuters: Sharia-compliant financial products need a clearer legal framework to attract non-Islamic investors, after the Dubai World debt crisis battered perceptions of limited and prudently-managed risk, said one legal expert.

The crisis, sparked when Dubai’s Nakheel asked for three listed Islamic bonds worth $5.25 billion to be suspended pending restructuring, was made worse because it was not clear who the legally competent authorities were, said Sonya van de Graaff, a partner at law firm Brown Rudnick…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Arabianbusiness.com: The Bahrain based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions, which helps sets standards in the sector, said on Tuesday that it plans to start screening Islamic finance products in the second half of this year to ensure they are sharia compliant.

Speaking at the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit in Bahrain, Mohamad Nedal Alcharr, said: “It will be a gradual process, it will not be widespread. It will be product by product.”………………………………..Full Article: Source

From Reuters: The launch of the first template for an over-the-counter Islamic derivative contract is “imminent” and will encourage more companies to hedge their risks, an executive at a bank involved in its creation said on Tuesday.

The contract, which is expected to pave the way for quicker and cheaper Islamic risk management and more frequent cross-currency transactions, was initially due to be launched a year ago…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Standard Chartered Bank Saadiq expects to launch an Islamic commodity derivative in the first quarter, the bank’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit, Afaq Khan said the bank was in advanced discussions with counterparties in the Middle East, including trading companies and government entities, to launch the product…………………………………Full Article: Source

Thomson Reuters has launched its next generation Islamic Finance Gateway to guide the emerging industry to the next stage of growth and development. The company said the new tool could help bring about “harmonisation of Sharia standards,” by creating a single location for all industry-related data giving investors and bankers the ability to communicate directly.

Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters, said, “Despite its image as an emerging industry, Islamic finance has now grown to be worth around US$1trillion and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway truly opens up this world of possibilities and opportunities for financial market participants and professionals…………………………………Full Press Release: Source

From Kippreport.com: Trading in Shariah-compliant products is about to enter a new age. But as the controversy over the Nakheel sukuk illustrated, the industry is still mired by a lack of transparency. You wouldn’t expect someone like Dr. Hussein Hamid Hassan, who is known as the ‘father of Islamic finance’, to speak favorably about conventional banking practices.

As president of the world’s first Shariah consultancy firm, and the chairman or board member of countless banks and institutions, Hassan has made a living advising on Islamic finance, the $1 trillion sector that was, for a while at least, considered immune to the financial woes of the West…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Arabianbusiness.com: Deutsche Bank expects to bring to the market a “major” Islamic bond in Saudi Arabia by the end of the first quarter, as part of a wider push into the world’s largest oil exporter, a company executive said on Tuesday.

Hussein A Hassan, head of structuring, Middle East and North Africa told the Reuters Islamic Banking & Finance Summit that the sukuk will be greater than the benchmark size of $500 million. He declined to identify the sector…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: - HSBC awaits double-digit revenue growth this year in the Islamic finance industry, where its Amanah banking division expects more sukuk mandates than in 2009, Razi Fakih, deputy chief executive of Amanah told Reuters.

HSBC expects to have more than the 15 mandates it had in 2009 for sukuk, or Islamic bond issues, Fakih said at the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Asiaone.com: Indonesia’s finance ministry said on Tuesday it had no winning bids for its auction of Islamic debt, or sukuk.

The ministry had expected to raise 1 trillion rupiah (S$151 million) from the auction of sukuk with tenors ranging from five to 15 years, the proceeds of which would be used to help finance the budget deficit…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Bloomberg:Indonesia canceled today its planned sale of Islamic treasury bonds, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The government had sought to raise 1 trillion rupiah ($107 million) selling the notes.

The government rejected all of the 1.7 trillion rupiah of bids it received for the so-called sukuk notes due September 2015, January 2017, January 2025 and February 2021, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site. “No bid was won,” the statement said, without giving a reason…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Ameinfo.com: The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) announces that the monthly issue of the short-term Islamic leasing bonds, Sukuk Al-Ijara, has been oversubscribed by 200%.
Subscriptions worth BD20m were received for the BD10m issue, which carries a maturity of 182 days…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Sharia-compliant Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) is targeting the thousands of rich Gulf residents who spend part of the year in London, to boost its private banking arm, its head told Reuters.

Britain’s largest stand-alone sharia bank aims for deposits in the wealth management unit — launched a year ago — to make up 20-25 percent of its total, from 5-10 percent currently, Chief Executive Humphrey Percy said on Tuesday…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Indonesia’s Islamic banks could offer investors twice the returns of conventional lenders in coming years, driven by solid demand for Islamic products in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and despite growing competition, a banker said.

Beny Witjaksono, president director of Bank Mega Syariah Indonesia, the country’s fourth-largest Islamic lender, told the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit he expected his bank to post a return on equity (ROE) of around 40 percent this year…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Arabianbusiness.com: Ahli United Bank received approval from the Bahrain and Libyan central banks to acquire 40 percent of the United Bank for Commerce & Investment, according to a Bloomberg newswire report on Tuesday.

Ahli United Bank disclosed this information in a statement to the Kuwait Stock Exchange…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Businessweek.com: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, the United Arab Emirates’ second-biggest bank complying with Islamic rules, plans to raise its stake in Egypt’s National Bank for Development to “above 50 percent,” Chief Executive Officer Tirad Mahmoud said.

“We plan to increase our stake above 50 percent after NBD becomes fully compliant with Islamic Shariah banking guidelines,” Mahmoud said in an e-mailed statement today. “Much progress has been made and we are satisfied with that.”………………………………..Full Article: Source

From Merinews.com: A one of a kind move of Kerala government to set up Islamic financial system in the state joining hand with Kerala State Investment Development Corporation (KSIDC) became controversial as Janatha party president, Subramanya Swami, filed a complaint in Kerala High Court alleging the move is a violation of nation’s secular norms.

KSIDC was likely to start a non banking financial institution under the supervision of Reserve Bank of India accepting11% of the share from Kerala government. But by a fresh notice sent to the State Government and the RBI, the High Court stayed that move…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Gulf-times.com: Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is tapping Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund as well as other government and private entities as the bank seeks to double financing for agriculture sector in developing countries.

“We are going in for talks with Qatari institutions,” IDB vice president Abdul Aziz al-Hinai told reporters on the sidelines of a function to mark the IDB Group day, which was attended by Finance Minster HE Yousef Hussein Kamal, Qatar Central Bank governor HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani and IDB president Ahmed Mohamed Ali…………………………………Full Article: Source

From WSJ: PT Bank Negara Indonesia’s net profit more than doubled in 2009, outpacing industry growth on a jump in fee-based income.

The bank, commonly known as BNI, also said it might raise up to seven trillion rupiah ($749 million) this year through a bond issue, sales of stakes in units, and a rights issue…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Gulf Finance House (GFH) is in talks to sell its stakes in Khaleeji Commercial Bank as well as its real estate projects, expecting a return of $250 million, its acting CEO said on Tuesday.
Ted Pretty told the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance summit in Manama that the troubled investment house is in talks with banks, sovereign institutions and real estate developers and hopes to complete the sales by the end of the quarter…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Forexyard.com: Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp has launched what it believes to be the country’s first Islamic financing tool for institutions, designed to facilitate commodities trade for Middle Eastern and Malaysian investors.

Westpac’s institutional bankers have developed an instrument allowing Islamic investors to buy iron ore and other commodities forward, using Westpac’s strong balance sheet, without the counterparty risks of a doing a direct deal with a supplier…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Allianz Takaful is in talks with a regional Islamic institution, urging it to issue a sukuk bond earmarked for the industry, as it struggles to find long-term issues in the market, its chief executive said.

It has been difficult for takaful — or sharia-compliant — insurers to sell products like annuities and pension plans because of the lack of long-term Islamic bonds to match such liabilities…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Thenational.ae: If you are looking for a local stock to add to your portfolio, Salama Islamic Arab Insurance is one that deserves a place on your watch list.

Takaful, or Sharia-compliant insurance, is showing tremendous growth relative to its conventional counterparts, Rasmala Investment Bank wrote in a report published on Monday. Since the report, Salama’s shares have risen 2.4 per cent to Dh0.83 a share on the Dubai Financial Market…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Albawaba.com: News that consulting giant Deloitte has opted to site its new Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre (IFKC) in Bahrain reflects the Kingdom’s track record as the most established financial centre in the Gulf and a global hub for Islamic Finance, according to Kamal Ahmed, Chief Operating Officer of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).
“As the first country in the region to establish a finance industry over 40 years ago and a pioneer of Islamic finance, Bahrain is the ideal location for Deloitte to base its new Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre. We are delighted that Deloitte is among the growing number of global companies that are recognising the Kingdom as the location of choice from which to access the trillion dollarGulf market and the wider Middle East.”………………………………..Full Article: Source

From BBC: An industrial park for Islamic goods and produce bringing about 3,000 jobs is planned for south Wales. News of the proposed £150m Super Halal Industrial Park (SHIP) was revealed at an Islamic finance summit in London.

Mahesh Jayanarayan, chairman of Halal Industries, said Wales was chosen as the project’s site for its meat industries and affordable land prices………………………………..Full Article: Source

From Bi-me.com: Standard & Poor’s Fund Services announced today that it has assigned an A fund management rating to two Global GCC Funds: Global GCC Large Cap Fund and Global GCC Islamic Fund.

Shahid Hameed, head of asset management at Global Investment House, manages both the funds. Hameed is supported by an experienced team of eight analysts in Kuwait, with further resources in Jordan and Egypt. The team is split by sectors and is responsible for $1.6bn across 11 mandates…………………………………Full Article: Source

From Business24-7.ae: Gulf oil producers and other Arab countries need to enact new legislations to enforce stronger transparency and governance in their capital markets to restore investors’ confidence that has been shattered by the global financial distress.

Regional stocks regulators and economists made the call at an equity conference held in Abu Dhabi to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) and discuss post-crisis markets in the region…………………………………Full Article: Source