Islamic finance is widely available throughout the Muslim world, but is rare in the United States, says Yahia A. Rahman, who bought Bank of Whittier, a tiny community bank in Los Angeles that specializes in financing for Muslims who want to comply with Islamic anti-usury laws that prohibit the paying or charging of interest, in 1982 and five years later opened a related financing operation, Lariba American Finance House, to handle mortgages and small business ventures.
Deals are structured so that the bank buys into the venture with the entrepreneur, who runs the company and buys the bank out, with payments structured so that the bank is compensated for its investment. Profits and losses are shared; the overall cost tracks with a traditional loan repayment at a standard interest rate………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Performing the haj or pilgrimage is one of the pillars of Islam for Muslims who are physically and financially capable. It is a huge annual undertaking, especially for Indonesia with 90 percent Muslim adherence among its population of 240 million.
The government believes that managing the huge amount of funds must be the responsibility of Islamic banks instead of conventional banks. It was an opinion reiterated recently at a seminar in Jakarta initiated by the Director General of Haj and Umrah (minor haj) Affairs Anggito Abimanyu. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Over 70 per cent of Belgian Muslims express strong interest in Islamic finance, revealed Belgium’s first independent market study. Key findings published this week from Belgium’s first independent market study, Islamic finance in Belgium – sizing the retail market points to a very strong interest from local Muslim consumers in Islamic finance products and services.
Over 70 per cent of survey respondents interviewed for the study have indicated their likelihood to take up such services if local banks were to begin offering them………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dubai’s strengths as a vibrant trading economy could help its push into Islamic finance, which has been plagued by doctrinal disputes and uncertainty over regulation.
If Dubai has its way, the world’s biggest Islamic bond issues will be designed under its rules and traded in its market. Muslims around the world will use Dubai’s standards to prepare food, and take disputes to Dubai for Islamic arbitration………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The soon-to-be-introduced Islamic Financial Service Act 2012 (IFSA 2012) will make Malaysia one of the few countries in the world where the Islamic regulator is given a mandate to promote syariah compliance among Islamic financial institutions, said a former senior official of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
“The act will ensure there would be greater certainty and will ensure that the syariah terms can be enforced as per the terms of the syariah contract,” said former BNM assistant governor Gopal Sundaram at a forum discussing the advent of the new legislation………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sharia banks are taking in stride Bank Indonesia’s plan to effect a new regulation on minimum down payments for housing and vehicle loans at their institutions, saying the central bank’s policy will not significantly impinge on their loan activities.
“The policy won’t dampen consumer demand for such loans,” OCBC NISP Bank’s sharia business unit head Koko Racmadi said in Jakarta recently. OCBC NISP adopts the musyarakah mutanaqisah (MMQ) financing scheme from Islamic finance products. MMQ is a type of housing loan in which sharia banks act as the owner of the house and gradually yield ownership to customers, who effectively act as its renter………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Bank Sarasin, which has been using the Avaloq banking system since 2004, went live with Avaloq’s new Islamic banking solution. It allows the bank to more efficiently manage the increasing amount of clients requesting Shari’ah compliant banking.
Avaloq developed the solution as a part of its Avaloq model bank – a preconfigured adaptation of the Avaloq banking system. The Islamic banking solution covers a wide range of Islamic finance products, such as murabahah ffinance, murabahah placement, diminishing musharakah, mudharabah, ijarah, of which two products were successfully implemented at Bank Sarasin………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Burj Bank Limited successfully went live with the iMAL Islamic Core Banking Solution, one of the most advanced Shari’ah compliant IT systems. iMAL is a new generation of comprehensive enterprise Islamic Banking and Investment System addressing the in-depth business functionality, and the state-of-the-art technology in a single highly integrated front.
It provides an effective Straight Through Processing (STP) functionality while meeting the Shari’ah rules and regulations………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Chief Executive of Bank Muscat AbdulRazak Ali Issa said that “2013 will be experimental year for Islamic finance in Oman”. He was addressing a gathering of shareholders, investors, the media and analysts from brokerage and investment companies at the bank’s investor meet at Muscat Securities Market (MSM) to discuss the bank’s 2012 results and business prospectus for the year 2013.
AbdulRazak Ali Issa said: “Amid the slow global economic recovery, the key business lines of the bank recorded healthy performance on expected lines in 2012. Following 31 years of successful growth, the bank is poised to further consolidate its position”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, has launched innovative Shari’a compliant savings and home finance products which have evoked good response.
Sulaiman Al Harthy, Group General Manager, Islamic Banking, said: “Meethaq is proud to take the lead in launching a suite of banking products which combine traditional values with modernity and ensure the choice of staying true to one’s values. Meethaq has adopted the best practices in Islamic banking and finance worldwide to combine a robust model which will protect customers and complement the Islamic banking industry………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said on Dec. 30 that he expected more sukuk, or Islamic debt, for the planned expansion of Riyadh and Jeddah airports. Government agencies with “the ability to generate income and operate commercially” are well-placed to issue bonds, al-Assaf said in May.
The kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation, or GACA, sold 15 billion riyals ($4 billion) of Islamic bonds in January last year. Saudi Arabia issued the most bonds last year in the Middle East at $6.3 billion, followed by Qatar at $4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The private bank’s chief investment officer warns of losing money in Islamic bonds this year. Coutts, the private banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland, is telling clients to switch part of their allocations to equities from bonds ahead of a bear market in fixed-income markets.
Investors, who piled into bonds in the past few years for relative safety amid volatile markets, could have up to 10 per cent of their wealth wiped out this year, Gary Dugan, Coutts’s chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East, said on Wednesday……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Danainfra Nasional Bhd’s exchange traded bonds and sukuk will tentatively be listed tomorrow (Friday). Malaysia’s first retail sukuk, which was oversubscribed by 0.61 times, will be issued to fund the construction of the country’s Sungai Buloh-Kajang mass rapid transit (SBK line).
The SBK line is the country’s current biggest infrastructure development, with a total estimated cost of RM23bil………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Paramount Corp Bhd, a property development and education group, will raise RM550 million via a RM200 million perpetual bond sale and a RM350 million sukuk programme, to be used for capital expenditure (capex) and working capital, to buy land as well as to fund a new campus in Glenmarie, Shah Alam.
Paramount will become the first private company to issue perpetual bonds. “For several months now, our team has been working with the teams at Hong Leong Investment Bank, OCBC Al-Amin Bank and RHB Investment Bank to put together a very special deal,” its executive deputy chairman Datuk Teo Chiang Quan said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oman’s first Shariah-compliant mutual fund, launched recently by Vision Investment Services has been well received by the investor community.
The Vision Al Khair GCC Fund, with the initial subscription period from January 10 to February 10, is popular because Vision has commendable track record in managing mutual funds particularly with strong emphasis in the GCC markets backed by a strong research team, Mustafa Ahmed Jaafar, Executive Director, told Observer………………………………………..Full Article: Source