The Islamic finance industry is becoming one of the fastest growing components of the global financial system, with experts projecting growth rates of between 15% to 20% per annum.
The Middle East region, which has played a pivotal role in the development of the Islamic banking and finance industry internationally, is witnessing a rapid expansion in the market share of its Islamic financial institutions with billions of dollars moving from the conventional banking system to the Shari’ah model………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Indonesia’s Shariah-compliant insurance assets increased by 32 percent to 9.2 trillion rupiah ($1 billion) in 2011 from a year earlier, according to data from the Capital Market and Financial Supervisory Agency.
Islamic insurance, or takaful, has grown by 50 percent on average in the last five years, the agency said. Malaysian insurers Mayban Ageas and Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd. plan to expand in Indonesia to take advantage of the growth rate, the companies told Bloomberg this month………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Acritical issue involving Islamic funds is that they are established with domestic investors in mind and are not sellable globally, thus limiting the investor base.
Their success is generally assessed on an individual market basis as they are more popular than conventional funds in markets with large Islamic populations such as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sudan aims to raise $1 billion to $1.5 billion this year with Islamic “sukuk” bonds that offer stakes in an oil pipeline, a move the African country hopes will draw more Gulf Arab investment to its debt market, a senior official said.
Sudan Financial Services Company, which issues Islamic bonds on behalf of the government, wants to offer the dollar-denominated sukuk within two months, General Manager Azhari Eltayeb Elfaki told Reuters………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) has proposed a three-part refinancing plan to creditors for its $2.04 billion Islamic bond which matures in November, a report said on Tuesday.
The state-linked industrial free zone held a meeting with bankers in Dubai this week, Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) said quoting unidentified sources present at the meeting………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, plans to sell 50 billion rials ($232 million) of Islamic bonds early April to finance government projects, central bank Governor Mohamed Awad Bin Humam said.
The Central Bank plans to target Islamic lenders in the country, and may offer a profit rate of “little less” than 20 per cent, Bin Humam said from the capital Sana’a. Islamic bonds pay profit rates to adhere to the religion’s ban on interest………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dana Gas, which has US$1bn in Islamic bonds maturing in October, said money owed by customers almost doubled last year. Total trade and other receivables climbed to US$501m from US$255m in 2010, the Sharjah, UAE- based company said in its consolidated financial statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse.
Dana Gas said US$212m of the total was owed for more than four months………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to Khalid Bin Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Investments, the company is exploring the option of Sukuk, and is negotiating with investors and financial institutions.
Emirates Float Glass (EFG) factory, a subsidiary of Glass, which is wholly-owned by Dubai Investments, was inaugurated on 19 March, and it aims to add a second phase to the Mussafah manufacturing unit. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The government has collected Rp 13.6 trillion (US$1.49 billion) in an Islamic debt-paper (sukuk) issuance, the highest amount since it was introduced in 2008, after seeing strong demand from local individual investors.
“During the offer period, investors ordered Rp 19 trillion, but we could only provide Rp 13.6 trillion, which is the upper limit of all previous Islamic retail bonds,” Rahmat Waluyanto, the Finance Ministry’s director general for debt management, said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Fitch Ratings has assigned Saudi Electricity Company’s (SEC) upcoming international debut Sukuk issue an expected ‘AA-(EXP)’ rating. The rating is in line with SEC’s ‘AA-’ Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating and SEC’s 2010, 2009 and 2007 domestic Sukuks’ ratings.
The final rating is contingent upon the receipt of final documentation conforming materially to information already received and details regarding the Sukuk amount………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has announced that the monthly issue of the short-term Islamic leasing bonds, Sukuk Al-Ijara, has been oversubscribed by 170 per cent.
Subscriptions worth BHD 34 million were received for the BHD 20 million issue, which carries a maturity of 182 days. The expected return on the issue, which begins on 22 March 2012 and matures on 20 September 2012, is 1.34 per cent………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Commodities trading group Noble is looking to diversify its funding sources to the ringgit market, more specifically into Islamic financing.
The Singapore-listed company has set up a M$3bn (US$981.7m) multi-currency sukuk Murabahah programme valid for 20 years………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The federal government has cut struggling Islamic lender Amlak’s debt burden by $1.1bn, the UAE economy minister said yesterday, in the latest effort to revive the Dubai mortgage provider whose stock has been halted since 2008.
The move could give Dubai’s battered property sector a boost as the federal government helps clean up the damage from Dubai’s 2009 real estate bust. Amlak, which is 45%-owned by Dubai’s largest real estate firm Emaar Properties, was one of the highest profile victims of Dubai’s construction boom which abruptly ended after the global financial crisis in 2008………………………………………..Full Article: Source

BankMuscat, the flagship financial institution in the Sultanate of Oman, has assigned RO 150 million of capital for its proposed Meethaq Islamic banking window.
The final allocation will be determined by business opportunities in the market and the Board has indicated that the assigned amount may increase if required. The capital allocation will be subject to necessary regulatory approvals………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Jawad Mohammed has received the distinction of becoming the highest scoring candidate in the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ).
Jawad, a bank analyst with the Central Bank of Bahrain, achieved this award from a cohort of over 350 candidates worldwide with an exceptional exam score of 96% - one of the highest results in any exam in the history of the Institute………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government committee overseeing the overhaul of Amlak Finance has cut the company’s debt by Dh4 billion (US$1.08bn) as attempts to clean up the after-effects of Dubai’s debt crisis proceed.
The committee had succeeded in lowering the Islamic mortgage company’s total debt “in coordination with the federal Government and the local parties concerned”, said Sultan Al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Tunisia will opt for a simple decree amendment limited to sukuk issuance before working on a global structure for Islamic finance, according to local lawyers.
A finance ministry official announced the creation of the Tunisian government’s latest pro-Islamic finance initiative last week………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Muslim nations are “laughing” at European efforts to grapple with a debilitating debt crisis in Greece, which has serious ramifications for the world’s biggest open market, the head of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) has said.
Former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam spoke to AFP in Brussels as European Union plans for a backstop bailout enabling Athens to refinance tens of billions of dollars of debt repayments and budget commitments were being thrashed out among eurozone officials………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Bangladesh Bank Governor called upon the Islamic banks and the Islamic windows of conventional banks in the country to pursue vigorous promotion of Islamic micro and SME finance to attain faster poverty eradication with deeper, wider financial inclusion.
While entering into partnering engagements with Islamic MFIs (Microfinance institutions) and area agents in off-branch locations, they need to exercise utmost care in steering clear of the money laundering, hundi, terrorist financing — influences that may be active in different regions of the country, Governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Dr Atiur Rahman said………………………………………..Full Article: Source