Bank Sarasin-Alpen won the Best Islamic Wealth Manager award at the Islamic Business and Finance Awards 2011 that took place at the Emirates Towers Hotel, Dubai on 13th December, 2011 and was managed by CPI Financial. The award was handed to R...
BankMuscat's Board of Directors decided to arrange an independent Islamic banking window at the bank and launch Islamic banking operations in accordance with the injunctions of Shariah, subject to approval from the Central Bank of Oman.
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Islamic Banking Department was set up in Pakistan on 15th September, 2003 and has been authorized with the task of promoting & developing the Shariah Compliant Islamic Banking as a parallel and compatible banking system in the country. Isl...
It seems that, even after his retirement, Mahathir Mohamed, the former Malaysian prime minister, is still giving advice whether on the global financial crisis, on the future of the Islamic banking industry, on the Islamic gold dinar, on the fu...
The deadline for financial institutions to submit proposals for advising the South African government on the structuring and issuance of its debut sovereign Sukuk will expire on Dec. 21.
Shortlisted candidates will be informed by Jan. 20...
PLUS Bhd’s record RM23.4 billion (US$7.3 billion) sukuk sale is attracting life insurers with higher-than-average yields and maturities of as much as 25 years.
The Malaysian company is taking over the nation’s biggest toll-road operator...
The 25th Board of Directors meeting of the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) took place on December 11 at Islamic Development Bank (IDB) offices in Jeddah. Present at the meeting were senior representatives from IDB, Central Bank o...
Abstract Islamic banks are said to possess ethical identity (Haniffa and Hudaib, 2007) because their social goals are just as important if not more important than financial goals because of the fact that they are based on religious foundations,...
Indonesia's finance ministry want to speed up the rate at which it launches bonds in 2012 because of concern over a global economic downturn and will issue 55-60% of its target in the first half of the year.
According to Arga Samudro, a J...
The latest development in Tanzania and East Africa’s emerging Islamic finance industry is the opening of Tanzania’s first Islamic bank, Amana Bank, last month. The headquarters of the bank are in the Kariakoo trade centre in the city, the hub...
Abstract academic paper:
Using a large international sample of 35 developed and emerging markets, we analyze
whether Islamic indices exhibit a different performance to conventional benchmarks. While there is no compelling evidence o...
Foreign issuance of sukuk in Malaysia is anticipated to increase by 25%-30% next year from 10%-15% currently owing to the global economic calamities and eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
Amanie Advisors Sdn Bhd director Baiza Bain noted th...
The Gulf Bond and Sukuk Association (GBSA) has revealed a detailed compendium of the nascent markets for local currency government-issued instruments. This is the first collection of its kind in the Gulf region.
The summary was put toget...
It seems that Saudi Arabia is discussing with banks the issuing of a riyal-denominated Islamic bond. High-level talks are currently ongoing between the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) and a number of local and international banks with ope...
Despite an eight-month revolt that has delayed Syria in violence and economic uncertainty, the recently opened Syrian unit of Al Baraka Bank aims to continue developing.
While new, small private banks seem to have largely escaped the wor...
A man named Omar Kalair was told to rendezvous in the dead of the night in a deserted suburban parking lot and hand over a consignment of gold and silver bullion to achieve recognition on the debts of a secretive organization.
The bizarr...
The State Bank of Pakistan has awarded Silkbank with an Islamic banking license.
The bank will be initially aiming Pakistan’s main population centers, Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad.
Africa has begun to move its economic attention away from the west to the Middle East and Asia as a primary source of capital raising. This shift in alignment partially explains the forthcoming launch of a number of Sukuk across the continent...
Oman Arab Bank is now ready to launch Islamic banking products through dedicated windows, after the regulatory framework is announced by the Central Bank of Oman in January.
Bishara Qafiti, deputy manager of Oman Arab Bank, stated that in...
Saudi Arabia has the largest population, GDP and oil reserves in the GCC region and is strategically and militarily important on both a regional and global scale. Despite all this, unlike its neighbors the UAE or Bahrain, Saudi Arabia is not a...
Saudi Arabia is discussing with banks the possibility to launch a riyal-denominated Islamic bond, or sukuk as the kingdom abandons its aversion to sovereign-level debt to help build a local currency yield curve.
Talks are ongoing between...
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) stated that it had fully paid an $800 million, five-year Islamic bond which matured on December 12, 2011.
The bank had launched the maturing Sukuk in 2006 as part of a $5 billion trust certificate programme.
Pakistan International Airlines Corp (PIA) raised $90 million (Dh330 million) through an Islamic syndicated fin-ancing facility.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Al Hilal Bank, Citibank, and United Bank Limited organized the facility being the ma...
A memorandum of agreement (MOA) for a capacity building initiative of the private sector in the field of Islamic finance was signed between the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and the International Centre fo...
Malaysia is awaited to continue its strong 60% contribution to global sukuk issuance next year, supported by projects under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
HSBC Amanah stated that this year a significant growth in sukuk was...
The sukuk market is one of the fastest growing segments in the global financial market. Muhammad Al-Bashir Muhammad al-Amine shows this in the introduction of his book titled “Global Sukuk and Islamic Securitisation Market - Financial Engineer...
Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) intends to borrow an additional RM1.5bil in January 2012 in the form of Islamic debt (sukuk) under its RM15bil Sukuk Musyarakah Programme. This is in addition to its launch of RM3bil of sukuk in June this year which wa...
Bankers embraced the GCC backed peace deal after nine months of sometimes viciously violent fighting in Yemen’s own take on the ‘Arab Spring’, a new government of reconciliation being sworn in to replace President Saleh’s regime in Yemen.
It seems that The Islamic Republic of Iran was the first country to introduce Sukuk to the financial market.
Mohammad Sajjad Siahkarzadeh noted that Iran arranged the operational mechanisms for issuing Sukuks in 1994 and introduced the m...
Bahrain’s Gulf International Bank (GIB) has finished the pricing and closing of its three-year $300m Sukuk through a private placement.
The Sukuk certificates will have a profit rate of six-month US dollar Libor plus 130bps and paid out o...
Fitch Ratings has put Al Rajhi Bank's Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'A+' with a Stable Outlook and its Viability Rating at 'a'.
The affirmation of the Viability Rating shows Al Rajhi's strong profitability, stable asset quality...
Singaporean Muslims don't have the possibility to apply for Shari’ah compliant home financing in Singapore despite the Shari’ah structures being in place. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has established a range of Shari’ah-compliant Islami...
Adnan Ahmed Yusuf Abdulmalek, head of Union of Arab Banks, noted that interest by Gulf lenders in Turkey’s Islamic banking market is on the rise. Leading Arab banks are currently inspecting opportunities to penetrate Turkey’s growing finance m...
The Oman First Islamic Finance & Banking Conference will bring together more 400 high level participants including governors of central banks, other industry regulators, Islamic and commercial banking leaders, fund managers, Sharia and lega...
The latest report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows that GCC corporate banking profitability is on its way to recovering from the turmoil of the financial crisis.
Altough, as Loan Loss Provisions (LLPs) culminated in 2009 and co...
Bank Indonesia (BI) stated that it is offering reverse repo for sharia banks and business units to decrease bank liquidity in the financial system.
Reverse repo transactions ask banks to buy at least Rp 1 billion (US$110,000) of governmen...
Nakheel made payments to the tune of ?Dh7.3 billion ($2 billion) to its trade creditors.
Nakheel will launch another Dh1 billion of sukuk before the end of this year as part of its Dh59 billion restructuring deal with trade creditors.
November 2011 showed a record number of sukuk issues totaling USD 8.86 billion globally, according to data compiled by Zawya Sukuk Monitor. Major launches contain a global seven-year USD 1 billion sukuk sold by Indonesia in the international m...
The BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund (BOPE Fund) recently obtained a 20% stake in US-based CHF Development Finance International, a holding company established by development organization CHF International to own and manage CHF’s commercially-o...
Gulf International Bank (GIB) communicates the successful pricing and closing of a three-year $300 million Sukuk-al-Murabaha private placement with a profit rate of 6-month USD LIBOR + 130 bps on a semi-annual basis.
The Sukuk will mature...
The most anticipated launch for some time is the slated $2bn Goldman Sachs (GS) Sukuk that will close at the end of this month.
Mohammed Khnifer, external Islamic finance specialist for Edcomm Group Banker’s Academy in New York, stated t...
Tanzania launched its first Islamic bank, Amana Bank, in the capital, Dar es Salaam. Amana Bank’s chairman, Haroon Pirmohamed, stated that the bank was launched to service the request for an ethical and interest-free alternative to conventiona...
Despite the fact that Zawya only covers Middle East-based funds, the sector is popular especially in Saudi Arabia, where 22 of the 24 funds listed are domiciled. The other two funds are from Kuwait and Bahrain.
There are two types of mul...
Great Eastern Takaful will spread its presence across the Indonesian border in 2012.
GE Takaful hopes that by moving into the developing Islamic insurance market in the world’s most populous Muslim state, it will rapidly assume a top thre...
Islamic Development Bank affiliate the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is helping to conduct a much needed Takaful offering to Azerbaijan through the development of a new Takaful company.
In order to manage t...
Dubai Standard Chartered Saadiq is researching opportunities to expand into newly-opened Islamic banking markets such as Oman and Nigeria and is closely evaluating the opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
With...
Capital Market Authority (CMA) is developing a separate set of regulations for Sharia-compliant takaful insurance and Sukuk debt instruments.
Abdulla bin Salem Al Salmi, Acting Executive President of CMA, stated that the new regulations w...
According to Standard Chartered Saadiq, Islamic banking assets in the UAE are forseen to grow to 20 % of the total banking sector in 2012 from an estimated 18 % this year.
The bank anticipates Islamic assets to comprise 38 per cent of to...
Inspite of the extraordinary potential of the country, financial institutions in Pakistan are still not taking Islamic micro financing seriously.
According to Al Baraka Bank Chief Operating Officer Ahmed Shuja Kidwai, Islamic micro finan...
Saudi Arabia, the biggest economy in the Middle East, is among the very few countries that have proved to be quite strong and robust.
According to Khaled Al-Aboodi, the chief executive officer of Islamic Corporation for the Development of...