The global sukuk market continues be sound and is on track to touch the predicted market size of US$44 billion (US$1 = RM3.20) by year-end from US$37 billion in 2011. Rafe Haneef, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd, said for the first half of 2012, the global sukuk market stood at US$20.5 billion, up from US$15 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
The growth, he said would be fuelled by many sukuk-funded mega projects which are in the pipeline in Malaysia, Asia and the Middle East, similar to the Tanjung Bin power plant project which is worth more than RM6 billion. ………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global sukuk market growth will likely stem from the Middle East and Asia as these burgeoning markets attract liquidity and provide opportunities for funding.
HSBC Amanah (M) Bhd chief executive officer Rafe Haneef said the financial unease in Europe would continue to deflect funds in the direction of the Middle East and Asia, where there are opportunities for funding growth through sukuk…………………………………Full Article: Source

Qatar plans to issue up to $4 billion in Islamic bonds, or Sukuk, through two companies that the Gulf state will set up through a decree issued by the Crown Prince, local daily Al Watan newspaper said on Monday.
Qatar, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporter, had picked Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank , HSBC, Barwa Bank and QInvest to help arrange a new sovereign Sukuk, sources told Reuters in May…………………………………Full Article: Source

Qatar’s Barwa Bank plans to issue a sukuk by 2013 and is eyeing a share listing over the longer term, its chief executive said last week.
The Islamic lender, a unit of Barwa Real Estate, sees an issuance as helping smooth out maturities in the Gulf state, which plans to invest about $130 billion (Dh477.5 billion) in its non-hydrocarbon sector through to 2018…………………………………Full Article: Source

HSBC Holdings, the top arranger of debt issues in the Middle East so far this year, said it expects a flurry of bond offerings in the second half, including from prime sovereign-linked Abu Dhabi names yet to tap the market in 2012
Debt issuance from the Gulf region has held up well so far this year, as a turn to Islamic bonds - with their specific liquidity pool - and strong local liquidity helped confound volatile markets which stymied other emerging market borrowers…………………………………Full Article: Source

Middle East borrowers have shrugged off the crisis in the euro zone, nearly doubling their debt issuance in the first half of 2012 amid a surge in Islamic bonds from oil-rich Saudi Arabia and as Dubai continued to refinance some of its indebted state companies.
Debt issuance rose to $24.3 billion in the first six months compared with $12.6 billion in the same period last year, figures from the data provider Dealogic show. About half of the region’s issuance was in Islamic bonds, as the number of Shariah-compliant deals more than tripled compared with last year…………………………………Full Article: Source

International legal practice Norton Rose Group has advised the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on the update of its $6.5bn Sukuk programme. A team from Dubai and London advised on updating the Trust Certificate Issuance Programme and a first drawdown under the updated programme. This included an issuance of $800m 1.357% Trust Certificates due in 2019.
The Programme was arranged by HSBC Bank plc; the Joint Lead Managers were Barwa Bank P.Q.S.C., BNP Paribas, CIMB Bank (L) Limited, NCB Capital Company and Standard Chartered Bank. Al Hilal Bank PJSC was the Co-Lead Manager in respect of the Certificates. (Press Release)

Islamic Development Bank Group’s President Ahmad Mohamed Ali held discussions with several Ministers in the UPA on ways to popularise Islamic banking in the country. Mr Ali also met vice-president of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Pranab Mukherjee, minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid and minister of state for external affairs E. Ahmed during his visit to the country last week.
During the meetings, Mr Ali highlighted Islamic Development Bank Group’s (IDB) role in upgrading economic and social development of the Bank’s member countries as well as Muslim communities in non-member countries…………………………………Full Article: Source

Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union freed Kazakhstan from Marxist ideology, the country of 17 million people is making a bid to become a regional centre of Islamic finance, which is based on religious principles including bans on interest and pure monetary speculation.
Strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since Soviet times, has declared he wants Almaty to become a hub for Islamic banking in the former Soviet Union, which includes other majority Muslim states and Russian republics such as Tatarstan…………………………………Full Article: Source

The objectives of ISRA can be summarised as: Spearhead and conduct-apply syariah research in Islamic finance. Since the establishment of ISRA in 2008, it has produced a number of academic research publications.
Enrich resources of knowledge in Islamic finance through publications and collecting materials in Islamic finance. ISRA also has a large collection of fatwas translated into English on its website. ………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre (QICDRC) plans to extend its commercial court jurisdiction to Islamic finance through a model framework, which it is currently working on, its top executive said yesterday.
QICDRC chief executive officer Robert Musgrove said, “We are currently looking at the possibility of resolving Islamic finance disputes by setting up a dispute resolution mechanism…………………………………Full Article: Source

The highest accreditation in Islamic finance is a fatwa, or expert legal opinion, from a top Islamic finance scholar. And the most widely accepted standard in Islamic finance is AAOIFI’s, the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, now the de facto standard in 90% of the world’s Islamic finance jurisdictions.
Today the two came together when AAOIFI Board Member Shaykh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, one of the world’s leading Islamic finance scholars, endorsed Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance. Ethica is the most heavily enrolled Islamic finance training and certification institute in the world with over 20,000 paying users in 44 countries…………………………………Full Article: Source

Egypt has signed an agreement with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for $1 billion in funding for energy and food imports, Egypt’s government said in a statement on Sunday.
The agreement, which is with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, part of the IDB, was signed in Cairo by Waleed Abdul Mohsen Al-Wohaib, the institution’s chief executive, and Egypt’s international cooperation minister, Fayza Abul-Naga…………………………………Full Article: Source

NBO has launched their Sharia compliant banking brand in Oman under the name ‘Muzn’.
The Deputy CEO of NBO, Ahmed al Musalmi, revealed the Muzn brand at the special occasion attended by Shaikh Khalfan al Esry, Muzn Sharia Supervisory Board member and Her Highness Sayyida Rawan bint Ahmed al Said, NBO Board Member as well as NBO senior management. ‘Muzn’ will be the Islamic banking window from National Bank of Oman offering Sharia Compliant…………………………………Full Article: Source

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that it has assigned its ‘BBB+’ issue rating to the Malaysian ringgit (MYR) 1.5 billion Islamic medium-term note program launched by the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK;BBB+/Stable/A-2). The rating on the program and any issuance under it is linked to the issuer credit rating on the DBK.
We believe the rationale for the transaction is to raise funds in accordance with the Islamic principle of Murabahah, with commodities as underlying assets…………………………………Full Article: Source

Saudi Arabia, which is spending about $500 billion to build infrastructure and industry, has approved a draft law that will allow mortgages to be sold in the kingdom, the state news agency said on Monday.
The law has been a long-awaited move to provide finance for real estate projects and is part of an overhaul of the kingdom’s home finance market…………………………………Full Article: Source

The Takaful industry is currently concentrated in limited markets, segments and business lines. However, there is immense unrealized potential that can be achieved.Ernst & Young’s World Takaful Report 2011 forecast that the current takaful growth trends would suggest $12 billion in gross contributions by 2012.
Excluding Saudi cooperative contributions, total takaful contributions are expected to reach $7 billion by 2012 from $9.1 billion last year…………………………………Full Article: Source