Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank has mandated Citi , HSBC and Standard Chartered to arrange investors meetings starting July 21 after which the lender could issue an Islamic bond, or sukuk, lead arrangers said on Tuesday.
Meetings kick off in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and conclude the following Tuesday in Switzerland……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The sharia system is potential to rival the conventional financial system. China has started paying serious attention to global sharia bonds.
Indonesian Vice President Boediono said that Islamic financial industry is growing rapidly at over 20 percent a year since 2000. In the beginning, sharia asset was only one percent of the total global assets, which is considered minor. It is estimated that by 2012, Islamic financial assets would reach US$1.6 trillion in keeping with the growing trend of sharia assets……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Central bankers from Malaysia, Indonesia meet in Jakarta, discuss need to improve cooperation to boost the development of Islamic finance in the two countries.
Meeting at a joint conference in Jakarta on 18 July 2011, Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz of Bank Negara Malaysia and Governor Darmin Nasution of Bank Indonesia agreed on the need for joint initiatives to create an ‘enabling environment’. At the conference, headlined ‘Enhancing Financial Linkages towards Economic Prosperity’, Governor Darmin said that, “There is a strong need for Islamic banks in Malaysia and in Indonesia to improve their cooperation and develop the Islamic finance market.”………………………………………Full Article: Source

Maybank Islamic (MI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), Indonesia, to establish cross border collaboration in all Islamic treasury and trade finance matters.
In a statement here Tuesday, MI said the collaboration would set the terms of cooperation between the two institutions in relation to enhancing cross-border liquidity flows and, as well as, increasing and diversifying the application of Islamic financial solutions……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Maybank Islamic Bhd, Asia-Pacific’s largest syariah lender, sees an increase in its contribution to the group‘s profit to 20 per cent in the next three years from the current 16 per cent, said President and Chief Executive Officer of Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar.
For its nine months financial period ended March 31, 2011, Maybank Islamic recorded a pre-tax profit of RM631.9 million……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Malaysian central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, has permitted foreign banks, including Indonesian banks, to open branches in the country. However, Malaysia has different regulations for syaria and conventional banks.
Bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said that foreign syaria banks could open a branch in all parts of Malaysia, while conventional banks could only open a maximum of eight branches and only on the outskirts of cities……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi at the weekend said that the Islamic banking system is not for Muslims alone, but for everyone, including Christians.
Sanusi, who spoke at a lecture for the 2011 Batch B members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at the Ise/Orun/Emure-Ekiti camp in Ekiti State, said the banking system would revive the economy which was adversely affected by the global meltdown……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Robust earnings from lending, insurance and investments as well as lower provisions for impairments saw Doha Bank report a 14% rise in its first half net profit to QR702.32mn.
Net interest income rose 29% to QR782.48mn, net Islamic financing and investment income by 25% to QR93.39mn and net income from insurance by 19% to QR14.49mn, even as net fee and commission income fell 21% to QR177.01mn, according to its financial statement filed with the Qatar Exchange……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Oracle announced that Amana Bank in The United Republic of Tanzania, has selected Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking and Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking to develop its core transaction processing system and internet banking capabilities. The start-up Amana Bank is the first to provide Sharia-compliant banking products to customers in The United Republic of Tanzania.
Dr. Idris Rashid, Managing Director, Amana Bank, Tanzania – said: “As the first Islamic bank in The United Republic of Tanzania, we needed to establish our services and capabilities to meet the demands of Islamic customers in the region. We selected Oracle because of its excellent reputation in adapting to regional banking demands. Oracle provides us with a scalable platform that will allow us to grow in the future and expand our services further. As part of our business strategy to offer anytime-anywhere banking, we’re also working with Oracle to serve our customers in a virtual environment through internet and SMS banking.” (Press Release)

The main challenge now for the International Islamic Liquidity Management (IILM) Corporation, perhaps, is to find the most common denominator among the jurisdictions for the global Islamic finance market, said Chief Executive Officer Mahmoud AbuShamma.
“We have to appreciate the different jurisdictions. We have institutions from Asia, Middle East and others. That’s the main challenge,” he said……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The favourable reception by the international market to Malaysia’s recent Wakala global sukuk indicates significant potential for Syariah-compliant instruments, said Bank Negara Malaysia Governor, Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
“The RM2 billion sukuk was huge and oversubscribed 4.5 times. There is significant demand and potential for Syariah-compliant instruments,” she said at the “Joint High Level Conference on Islamic Finance by Bank Negara and Bank Indonesia: Enhancing Financial Linkages Towards Economic Prosperity”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Amanah Mutual Bhd (AMB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB), a company under the flagship of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) group recently launched a RM200 million Islamic money market fund, the AMB Dana Nabeel.
According to a press release, AMB Dana Nabeel was a syariah-compliant open-ended money market fund comprising 400 million units with a par value of 50 sen per unit……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The ratings remain supported by PLUS’s strong business profile, underscored by the NSE’s strategic alignment as the backbone of connectivity for Peninsular Malaysia.
RAM Ratings has reaffirmed the AAA ratings of Projek Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan’s (PLUS) MYR 3.55 billion Senior Sukuk, MYR 2.26 billion Sukuk Musharakah Series 1 (Sukuk 1), MYR 2.41 billion Sukuk Musharakah Series 2 (Sukuk 2) and MYR 4.50 billion Sukuk Musharakah Medium-Term Notes Programme (Sukuk 3); all the long-term ratings have a stable outlook. The Senior Sukuk, Sukuk 1, Sukuk 2 and Sukuk 3 are collectively known as the Sukuk Musharakah……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Tamweel, the UAE Islamic home finance provider, announced today its financial results for the six months ending June 30, 2011, demonstrating continued momentum in its business operations during a period of increasing stability in the domestic property market.
For the first half of 2011, Tamweel reported a net profit of AED 54.9 million, compared to AED 10.5 million in the same period last year……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, made it clear where he stood on Islamic law as practised in Australia. ”When it comes to sharia … I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There is no place in Australia for sharia law, full stop,” he said.
But the reality for Muslims might not be so clear cut. From the religious requirements for divorce to issues around seeking a loan, the detailed religious regulatory system of all aspects of life is practised by many in the diverse Islamic community……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Islamic finance is similar to conventional finance in the sense it refers to facilitating pooling of financial resources and their investments, except that all the activities are undertaken in compliance with Shari’ah – commonly referred to as Islamic law. Shari’ah, literally means ‘path’ or ‘way’ to water source.
In Islamic jurisprudence, Shari’ah refers to the laws contained in, or derived from, The Qur’an and the Sunnah (sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad). The Qur’an and the Sunnah are the fundamental sources of Islamic economics providing guidelines for economic behaviour and a blueprint of how the economic system of a society should be organised……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Sharia banking, also known as Islamic banking, refers to the type of banking activities which is based on the principles of Islamic law (Sharia of Shariah in Arabic). It also involves the application of the Sharia principles through the development of Islamic economics. How is it different from conventional banking?
Basically, the Sharia forbids the imposition of loan interest rates (usury or Riba in Arabic). In addition to that, investing in businesses that do not operate according to the principles of Islamic law is considered Haraam (Arabic for ‘forbidden’)……………………………………….Full Article: Source