No risk no reward The UK has long been seen as the champion of Islamic finance not to mention the industry’s gateway to Europe. Even after a decade, it may still be too early to tell if the industry has succeeded or not. One of the industry’s biggest challenges in the UK is the small number of bankable Muslims, according to some... more…
Keen to implement Islamic finance Steps have finally been taken to end a parliamentary stalemate with regards to Islamic finance in the country. Plans to approve a bill on tax neutrality for the issuance of Sukuk, initially shelved in January, will be revived with the recent appointment of Kil Poo Kang, new chairman of the National Assembly’s Strategy... more…
Uphill struggle for UK Islamic banking The Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) has recently received a much desired capital injection of GBP20 million (US$30.9 million) from its founding shareholder Qatar International Islamic Bank. The IBB is looking to use the capital to expand its home purchase plan, an Islamic mortgage alternative for housing... more…
Tapping petro dollars for Ningxia Ningxia Hui, a Muslim dominated autonomous region in the country will be holding the first China — Arab trade forum on the 26th September this year. This four day meeting scheduled between Chinese officials and a delegation comprised of 300 Middle East based companies is expected to generate much needed business for Ningxia. Anticipated investments from the Middle East would be used to create Shariah compliant production lines... more…
Debt increases On the 25th August 2010, Dubai World revealed that its total debts exceed US$39.9 billion, a figure much higher and close to double the amount estimated only a month earlier. Prior to a debt-restructuring meeting held with the state owned conglomerate’s smaller creditors in July, its debt was estimated at US$23.5 billion. In shouldering this heavy burden, Dubai World is now considering the sale of its strategic assets... more…
IT Focus — from Conventional to Islamic One of the greatest challenges in launching an Islamic bank is having access to a well-established independent and active Shariah board. While this process can be rapidly increased by utilizing already existing Shariah boards, it is the implementation of the Shariah board’s rulings into the day-to-day running of banking... more…
Take Risks or Remain Stagnant It is almost a mantra that risk sharing lies at the essence of Islamic finance. Dr Abbas Mirakhor, former executive director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) goes further to say that it is ‘idiosyncratic risk’ that differentiates Islamic finance from its conventional counterpart. “Islamic finance covers an area of... more…
The UK Islamic Banking Scene In my opinion the reason why retail Islamic finance has not taken off in the UK in the manner originally hoped is that the addressable market is very small. There are only about 2.4 million Muslims in the UK, many of who are too young to need banking services, and many others are too poor to be profitable customers for... more…
Islamic Finance in the UK Recently there have been a few articles in the UK press making broad sweeping statements that “Islamic finance in the UK is a huge flop” and “a failure”. The timing of the first article was immaculate. Initially issued during a slow news period it was soon picked up by many publications that subsequently overlooked... more…
Securities and Securitization As far as Islamic securitization is concerned, Pakistan is the lead player. The local regulators have traditionally encouraged exploring and introducing complex asset backed financing structures at large. Although the entire banking and non-banking financial sectors are now facing difficulties due to the global financial turmoil... more…
Time for Paradigm Shift: Role of Islamic Finance With Social Responsibility Most of the Muslim World (MW) economies are undoubtedly consumer and not producer societies. Therefore, we are vulnerable to world market fluctuations in food supply items, mainly rice and wheat. Basically, the harsh realities of our economies have always made us rely on others, especially the powerful nations... more…
East Asia Bucks the Trend: Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes in August 2010 “Double-Dip concerns everywhere,” is the title of Credit Suisse’s research daily on the 25th August. News spreading during the summer has been less than encouraging. Home sales in the US plummeted 27% in July to an annual rate of 3.83 million units, the lowest sales pace since the National Association of Realtors... more…
Forum Will the recent pioneer UK Sukuk issuance triggers more Sukuk issuances and other Islamic finance products in the UK and Europe? more…
Meet the Head Daud Vicary Abdullah Global Leader for Global Islamic Finance Group Deloitte Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today? Since the age of 16, I wanted to be in banking and finance. After graduation, I worked for several major banks based out of London, gaining experience in operations, credit, internal audit and information technology. In 1988, I decided to move into process consulting and eventually set up my own business in 1991... more…
Keen to implement Islamic finance
