Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) is planning a sukuk issuance programme of up to $1.5 billion, a company statement said on Wednesday. The bank will seek shareholder approval of the plan in a meeting on Sept. 16.
“A consent from the quorum at the General Assembly will allow QIB to further process necessary approvals from the relevant authorities in Qatar with regards to potential Sukuk issuances under the Programme in the future,” the emailed statement said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sliding sukuk costs mean Malaysia’s state-owned Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd is paying 20% less to finance railway expansion than China, which is building the world’s largest high-speed network.
Prasarana, which runs light-rail services in and around the capital Kuala Lumpur, sold RM1bil (US$321mil) each of 2022 and 2027 syariah-compliant notes to yield 3.77% and 4%, respectively, Mohd Zahir Zahur Hussain, the company’s finance director, said in an interview yesterday. China’s Railways Ministry issued 10-year non-Islamic bonds at a coupon rate of 4.68% on Aug 21 and 15-year securities at 5%, the Government’s debt clearing house website shows………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatar Petroleum Finance Director Abdulrahman al-Shaibi says the sukuk issuance will be facilitated and backed by abundant assets the oil company have. With Qatar setting new benchmarks for the Shariah-principled debt, its oil and gas flagship Qatar Petroleum (QP) is fast readying up to float its sukuk, it is learnt.
“Following the considerable success of the new sovereign sukuk, the country’s national oil and gas flagship QP is also expected to place its first sukuk bond sometime in the second half of 2012,” Commerzbank, Chief Analyst Apostolos Bantis said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

First Gulf Bank, or FGB, was awarded the 2012 “Best Islamic Deal in the UAE” award for its $650 million sukuk (Islamic bonds) issuance in August 2011, which was six times oversubscribed. The award was presented during the Asset Triple A Islamic Finance awards in Kuala Lumpur.
The FGB five-year sukuk was subscribed by more than 200 different investors worldwide. Of these investors, 46 per cent were Middle East based, 24 per cent were from Europe, 24 per cent from Asia and six per cent from the US and other markets………………………………………..Full Article: Source

When Abu Dhabi’s biggest bank issued a $750 million bond in August, strong investor demand underlined how well most Gulf banks are riding out the global financial crisis. The issue also sent another signal: that the region’s debt market is growing strongly and, increasingly, integrating with overseas markets.
The seven-year bond from National Bank of Abu Dhabi, which attracted about $4.5 billion of orders from investors, was issued in the third week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Islamic banks market themselves as the panacea to the world’s ailing economy; but are a set of prohibitions enough to make the financial world a better place? Many Islamic banks saw the financial crisis as the ultimate marketing opportunity. While banks in the western world were steeped in scandal, Islamic banks could present themselves as the opposite and tempt weary consumers through their doors with promises of fairness, transparency and morality.
The trouble is, consumers have heard this all before. Lehman Brothers’ lured investors with their respected code of ethics, which it claimed was to “help maintain a culture of honesty and accountability”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

International rating agency Fitch Ratings on Tuesday praised Bank Indonesia’s plan to issue rules requiring Shariah banks to toughen up their down payment requirements on housing and automotive loans.
Fitch said in a report that Indonesia’s consumer financing “is likely to see improved underwriting quality and regulatory consistency, if Bank Indonesia harmonizes prudential rules for Shariah-compliant products with those for mainstream consumer loan products.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

First National Bank (FNB) aims to appoint a new sharia board for its Islamic finance division by the end of 2012, after the previous board dealt a blow to the bank’s effort in the sector by resigning a month ago.
“It’s top priority for us. We are certainly aiming to have our final committee together towards the end of the year,” Amman Muhammad, chief executive of FNB Islamic Finance, told Reuters late last week………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Turkey’s Kuveyt Turk investment fund plans to open the first Islamic bank in Germany in October 2012, Financial Times Deutschland reported on Wednesday. Kuveyt Turk plans to open its first branch, following the principles of sharia law, in Frankfurt-am-Main in cooperation with Ernst & Young auditing company and Norton Rose law firm.
Sharia prohibits a fixed or floating payment or acceptance of specific interest or fees on loans. As for mortgages, the Islamic bank purchases houses and then sells it to a client for a higher price………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Islamic Finance in South AfricaIslamic finance has seen exponential growth in North Africa, particularly in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, with many Middle East financial institutions investing in the region. Considerable development has also been taking place in the south of the continent.
Despite the low Muslim population in South Africa, the government has been one of the front-runners to make it a hub for Islamic finance in Africa. South Africa is the most advanced African nation in terms of robust legislative structures, strict governance structures, and regulations, which gives it an advantage in implementing Shariah-compliant financial systems………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Islamic non-governmental organisations (NGOs), cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFI) have been encountering the challenges numerous challenges from the very beginning. Funding Islamic microfinance programme (IMP) is the major challenge. In order to cover the poor living below the poverty line, a huge fund is required. Due to the lack of fund, many Islamic NGOs, MFIs and cooperatives have failed to reach the poorest of the poor.
Having a misconception about Islamic views towards modernisation and empowerment of women, donors and developing agencies very often show little or no interest in funding Islamic NGOs-MFIs. Consequently, Islamic microfinance (IM) is yet to expand its country-wide outreach effectively………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As we have said again and again in this series of articles, oil could have been, and should have been, a blessing in the Middle East but it has turned out to be more a curse.
Why has the economic and political development of in these oil-exporting countries been so dismal? The “oil curse” has had many tentacles. With vast oil revenues, the temptation to rob the citizenry has been irresistible for rulers, and the elite - the family and friends of the rulers, cronies, senior military and anyone who had even a remote opportunity to enrich themselves………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Russia’s most senior Islamic cleric warned on Wednesday that civil war could break out in the southern region of Dagestan after a moderate Muslim cleric was killed in a suicide bombing that has heightened religious tensions.
An ethnic Russian, who was both wife and widow of Islamist militants, was named as the bomber who on Tuesday killed Said Atsayev, 74, a prominent Sufi sheikh in the mainly Muslim region who had spoken out against violent Islam………………………………………..Full Article: Source