Bloomberg has announced the launch of a comprehensive Islamic Finance Platform which will provide a myriad new tools for Shariah-compliant financial investors and investments. According to Bloomberg President Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s growth in this field is attributed to its belief that the Islamic marketplace “is growing rapidly and there is a high demand for a wide range of resources.”

Bloomberg states that the new platform will provide news coverage, analytics, and search tools of more than 1,500 global Islamic bond issues, 35,000 Islamic stocks, 500 Islamic funds, credit ratings, 250 Shariah scholars, more than 70 Islamic banks and profiles on all prominent Islamic institutions and regulators.

For the original Bloomberg Press Release, please click here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/bloomberg-releases-comprehensive-islamic-finance-platform.html

Financial heavyweight HSBC is planning to establish its first Mid-East branch location dedicated to Amanah, the bank’s Islamic-banking wing.

According to the story reported by Arabian Business, CEO Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi said the move – which will see a branch opening in Doha, Qatar – underscored the bank’s commitment “to fulfilling our customers” diverse financial needs. “This will be the first branch in the Middle East dedicated exclusively to HSBC Amanah,” Mostafawi said in comments published by Gulf Times on June 6, 2010.  “We have seen a double digit growth in the Islamic banking business in the last five years or  so,” Mostafawi told the paper.

According to Arabian Business, on plans for HSBC Qatar to open more branches in the country, Mostafawi said: “We will assess the situation and take decision at the right time. If our presence is required in a particular zone or area, we will look at it. But then we also need to see the actual need given the rising acceptance of electronic banking channels including the ATMs and Internet.”

For the original Arabian Business story, please click here: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/589814-hsbc-eyes-first-mideast-branch-dedicated-to-shariah-banking#continueArticle

Petroleum Economist is reporting that Sharia-compliant financing structures are becoming increasingly prominent in oil and gas transactions.

According to Petroleum Economist, after a lengthy gestation period and a few false starts, Islamic financial instruments are set to play a growing role in energy finance –  in the Muslim world and beyond. Sharia-compliant instruments, traditionally confined to the retail banking market, have broken out of that niche over the past five years, migrating toward infrastructure sectors including energy.

Islamic funding in Middle Eastern project-finance deals are now commonplace. Petroleum Economist believes that the use of Islamic project financing in the energy sector took a big step forwards with the $3.45 billion Dolphin Energy project financing in September 2005. This project involved the production and processing of gas from Qatar for supply to utility customers in the UAE and Oman at the end of 2006.

For reference to the original Petroleum Economist story, please click here: http://www.petroleum-economist.com/default.asp?page=14&PubID=46&ISS=25616&SID=725889

Business 24-7 has reported that the volume of Islamic loans over the course of the last 12 months has exceeded $5.6 billion in Saudi Arabia, which has been the largest lender. The loan volume in Qatar was the next highest at $2.75 billion, followed by the UAE at $900 million, Bahrain at $540 million, Turkey at $306 million and Kuwait at $293 million.

According to Business 24-7 recent report by Moody’s found that Islamic finance assets grew to $950 billion in 2009, in spite of the economic crisis. Moody’s estimates that the Islamic finance industry’s potential is worth at least $5 trillion.

According to industry experts, growth opportunities lie for Islamic finance in various areas including SME financing and also by tapping into the wealth of high net worth individuals which is estimated to increase at 8.1 percent on an average from 2009-2013, with Asia-Pacific and Middle East seeing the maximum increase in wealth.

For the original Business 24-7 story, please click here: http://www.business24-7.ae/banking-finance/islamic-finance/saudi-arabia-tops-in-islamic-loans-volume-2010-05-30-1.249651

The Global Head of Islamic finance at Thomson Reuters, Rushdi Siddiqui, predicts that Islamic Finance is set to be a $2 trillion industry in the next five years, according to AMEInfo.com.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia Forum titled “The Challenges Ahead for Islamic finance,” Siddiqui said, “It took the Islamic finance industry 40 years to become a $1 trillion industry. It will take another two to five years to become a $2 trillion industry.”

According to AMEinfo.com, there are many challenges that need to be overcome for the industry to realize its potential. Panelists said the lack of standardization in the industry, the lack of consensus among Shari’ah scholars, the poor “connectivity” between Islamic finance institutions across the world, and the global shortage of experienced Islamic finance professionals are some of the challenges facing the industry.

Hosted by the Dubai International Finance Center, the MENASA Forum is focused on discussing the critical opportunities and challenges confronting the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region over the next decade. Under the theme of ‘finance for the Next Decade of Growth,’ the MENASA Forum featured over 250 members of the regional and international banking and financial services industry, regulators and senior business executives.

For the original AMEinfo.com article, please click here: http://www.ameinfo.com/233491.html

Ernst & Young was a Gold Sponsor at the General Arab Insurance Conference held May 17-19, 2010. The conference was hosted in Jordan and organized by the Jordan Insurance Federation in cooperation with the General Arab Insurance Federation. The conference was attended by over 1,500 participants representing large local, regional and international organizations operating in the insurance and reinsurance sectors, in addition to a number of prominent investors, brokerage, Third Party Administrators (TPA), loss adjustors and lawyers.

In an interview with Trade Arabia, Ernst & Young shed light on the purposes for its involvement in the conference. “This conference is one of the largest taking place in the Middle East that brings together notable economists and insurance experts,” said Bishr Baker, managing partner at Ernst & Young, to Trade Arabia. “The financial crisis has undoubtedly impacted the sector, giving new meaning to the concept of liability, and so it is time to put forward strategies for companies to follow in order to maintain stability in the market.”

The third edition of Ernst & Young’s ‘World Takaful Report 2010: Managing performance in a recovery,’ unveiled at the 5th Annual World Takaful Conference of 2010, confirmed that the global Islamic Insurance (Takaful) industry is on course to surpass $8.8 billion in contributions in 2010. Contributions grew by 29 percent in 2008 to reach $5.3 billion.

For the original Trade Arabia story, please click here: https://www.tradearabia.com/news/BANK_180219.html

In the last few weeks, there have been a number of stories in the headlines about the need for new talent among the Islamic financing world.

Astbury Marsden has reported that Islamic finance could create significant new jobs in London, which is intending to play a central role in the future expansion of the Islamic finance sector.

Earlier in May 2010, Kuwait Finance House (KFH-Bahrain), hosted 38 MBA students from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in a seminar designed to introduce them to Islamic financing and business transactions.

Most recently, Reuters has reported that there is a shortage of qualified professionals in the Islamic finance sector. “There are about 15 highly qualified internationally recognized scholars who are financially savvy and who understand modern finance,” said Harris Irfan, head of Islamic products at Barclays Capital, to Reuters. “It’s very difficult to get time with those 15 as they sit on dozens of boards and are very much in demand.”

For the original Reuters story, please click here: http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-48970520100601

Thomas Reuters has announced that it now offers a new service catering to the Islamic finance industry, including a gateway that provides up-to-date information on the market, services, and shariah-compliant companies.

“Despite its image as an emerging industry, Islamic finance has now grown to be worth around $1 trillion and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway opens up this world of opportunities for [the] financial market,” said Rushdi Siddiqui, global head of Islamic finance at Thomson Reuters.

According to Reuters, the Islamic Finance Gateway offers detailed information about and links to Islamic finance professionals, rating agencies, industry standards bodies, Islamic finance hubs, index providers, consulting firms, 400 sharia scholars and Islamic subsidiaries from over 25 countries. Market professionals can access comprehensive, multi-asset class information on a wide range of Islamic finance instruments such as sukuks, Islamic leveraged loans, funds, the Islamic money market, takaful and currencies. Publicly listed sharia-based and screened companies and Islamic or commodity ETFs can be traded over the Thomson Reuters Trading for Exchanges (TRTex) platform, which has been integrated within the Gateway.

For the full press release, please click here: http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/tf/tf_gen_business/2010_02_16_islamic_finance

Arabian Business is reporting that a new study conducted by Bank Sarasin earlier this week has concluded that Islamic banks are largely failing to cater to their clients’ wealth management and estate planning needs – pushing them to rely on traditional asset managers.

The Islamic Wealth Management report also commented that Islamic succession planning is in need of an overhaul, as it currently lacks mechanisms to ensure wealth preservation over generations.

For more information about Shariah-compliant estate planning, Islamic inheritance rules, or other related information, please contact info@islamic-finance-blog.com.

For the original Arabian Business story (reprinted from Reuters), please click here: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/585120-islamic-finance-short-on-wealth-management

Canada’s The Province reports that Canada’s biggest banks have still not tapped a growing pool of investors and borrowers sitting on piles of cash or in need of loans. The Province reports that there is a need for Islamic financial instruments, but also, for Islamic and Shariah compliant retail banking.

“We have immigrants who come to us and sit in our offices and tell us they have a million dollars sitting in one of the Big Five banks, in cash,” said Omar Kalair, president of UM Financial, one of the few providers of Muslim mortgages in Canada, to The Province.

The potential market is huge, with the Canadian Muslim population expected to reach 1.5 million by 2017. And, according to The Province, a recent poll indicated that around half of Muslims would prefer shariah-compliant retail banking options.

The Province reports that Guidance Residential LLC, the biggest player in the United States, has provided more than $1 billion in Islamic mortgages. There is currently $2.75 billion invested in mutual funds that comply with shariah. And globally, Thomson Reuters recently pegged the value of the Islamic finance industry at $1 trillion.

Since 2005, UM Financial has provided 500 homebuyers in Canada with $120 million in murabaha financing. And the company recently partnered with MasterCard to introduce the first “credit” card in North America aimed at Muslim consumers. Cardholders must first load up their cards with cash, spending only money they actually own and avoiding interest payments or credit-card debt.

Kalair said to The Province that it is now only a matter of time before UM teams up with a major bank to expand and extend its line of products. “Even though there are limited products and the pricing is high … in the Muslim community, if they were provided an opportunity, they would be ready to switch over.”

For more information on Islamic financial instruments or Shariah-compliant loans or lending, please contact info@islamic-finance-blog.com.

For the original story courtesy of The Province, please click here: http://www.theprovince.com/life/story.html?id=2754081