In November 2007 a renowned Shariah scholar issued a statement on the illegitimacy of those outstanding Sukuk issues underpinned by repurchase agreements (the so called Purchase Undertaking Deed) and where, as a consequence, risk and reward are not shared according to the actual venture proceeds. He vowed that it was time to review standards …

ISPI Policy Brief – G.Plutino, “La crisi fa riscoprire la banca islamica”, November 2008. Mentre le aziende di credito e le istituzioni finanziarie occidentali attraversano una fase di pesante ristrutturazione e si interrogano sul futuro , le banche islamiche crescono con tassi di sviluppo a doppia cifra. La gravità della crisi finanziaria ed economica mondiale, l’incertezza sulle prospettive, la necessità di modificare i modelli di business e una diversità così marcata nelle condizioni operative rendono urgente la necessità di confrontarsi in modo più approfondito con questo fenomeno …

Analysis of the “Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna” -The Arab world has always paid great attention to the Italian economy, as various important investments document. However, this propensity has not shown aspects of continuity due to the well-known reasons of structural rigidity which characterize our national State-System … Powerful limitations are also derived from the credit-financial system support for the scarce internationalization of the Italian system. In perspective, this latter criticality could be accentuated by the growing demand, in the financing of the Arab investment, of technical particulars tied to the respect for the Islamic religion …

Islamic Finance made its entry into the European financial arena through the advent of Shari’a-compliant home finance propositions launched in the UK between the early to mid 90’s of the 20th century . Since then, the industry has become stronger and stronger every day in the UK which now has six authorised fully-fledged Islamic banks and a Takaful company operating in the country with more than a handful of conventional financial institutions offering an ever-increasing range of Islamic products to their clientele. But how does this enviable momentum compare with the rest of the European markets?

And Jesus went into the temple of God , and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them who sold doves, “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” – Matthew 21:12-13 …

Past: When Mr Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world, called some financial instruments like the Derivates and Credit Default Swaps (CDS) ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ over three years back, few of us took notice . The world economy was on the roll. European realty and financial markets were booming. US was ‘winning the war on terror’. And rest of the world was blindly aping this mirage called ‘American Dream’ …

Ci sono fondi che non investono in alcol, tabacco o carne di maiale . Sono i fondi “islamici”, e rispettano rigorosamente i precetti indicati dal Corano. Per questo, non investiranno mai nemmeno in armi, gioco d’azzardo o pornografia. Strumenti finanziari nati nei Paesi arabi che, ogni anno, raccolgono miliardi di dollari in tutto il mondo, Europa compresa. Solo in Italia, i fondi islamici restano alla porta: ce n’è solo uno -Bnp Paribas Islamic Fund-, e viene gestito dal Lussemburgo …

As mentioned in our article on Islamic financial services in Italy published in the Islamic Finance news 2008 Guide at the beginning of the year , the ‘Bel Paese’ (‘Beautiful Country’) was home in 2007 to around 1.4 million Muslims. They represented 32% of the 3.7 million foreigners residing in Italy or 2.3% of Italy’s population and evenly distributed, with 55% living in the north, 25% in the central region and 20% in the southern part of the country …

Alberto Brugnoni, ex direttore di Merrill Lynch Bank Italia, presidente di Assaif, come si concilia il guadagno con la shariah? «La shariah non dice che non deve esserci guadagno,ma impone che debba essere frutto di un’attività reale e di una condivisione del rischio d’impresa. Non deve essere generato dal tasso d’interesse e dalla cartolarizzazione infinita» …