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    Libya beckons

    So if we call them Islam-ic banks, what ab ut the banks we already have? Are they in del banks?

    was what dep sed Libyanpresident Muammar Gadda isrep rted t have said t FarhatBengdara, his central bank g vern r dismissing the idea f devel ping Islamic nance in the c untry.

    But with Gadda andBengdara gone, what are theprospects for Islamic nancein new Lib a? Not bad, albeit

    with caveats Mohammad Khan,head of Islamic nance for PwC,told The Islamic Globe . He said:Lib a is currentl still going

    through a period of politicalinstabilit . Once there is politi-cal stabilit there is no reason

    wh Lib a couldnt develop itsIslamic nance potential.

    There had been some tenta-tive steps towards the introduc-tion of Islamic nance in Lib a

    with the award of a license tooperate a Shariah compliant

    bank to Qatar Islamic Bank, butthis was a month before Lib adescended into civil war. QIBdid not respond to a request forcomment about its proposedoperations in Lib a or the statusof its license under the Gaddaregimes replacement, the Na-tional Transitional Council.

    Under Gadda the bankings stem operated under ver tight restrictions as the regime

    was keen on controlling thereceipts from the estimated1.6m barrels of oil pumped ada before the uprising started.For the average Lib an on thestreet, the banks offered a basicservice of cash deposits and

    withdrawals. As one GCC-based banker,

    originall from North Africa,told The Islamic Globe off the record: Credit cards andasset management products

    were provided exclusivel b private banks to a favored nicheof the population. So beforeLib a even explores Islamic

    banking, its got to developand modernize the whole

    banking s stem. Part of thismodernization could be the

    introduction of Islamic nance.The fundamentals for Is-

    lamic nance in Lib a, however,are strong simpl b the natureof the fact that the countr hasa population of 6.6m, most areMuslims, man are devout and well educated and compared tothe rest of Africa enjo a fairl high per capita income level.

    The personal view of anotherIslamic banker based in theGCC but originall from North Africa was: I believe that Is-lamic nance will grow in Lib afollowing the end of Gadda sregime, but it will take sometime. I guess the situation will be ver similar to what hap-pened in Iraq ears back.

    However, the consensus view

    from the Islamic bankers The Islamic Globe talked to from theGCC, UK, Mala sia and Africa was that if Islamic nance is go-ing to happen in Lib a it needsat least four things to occur.

    First, large Islamic nancecorporations need to investthere soon to help with thereconstruction. Some anal stspredict that the civil war hasdone at least $15bn of damageto the countr s infrastructureso far.

    Second, the countr needs toreview, update and amend the banking sectors regulator re-gime, international compliance,ICT and procedures. This needs

    doing whether Islamic nanceis going to be a part of Lib asfuture on not.

    Third, the central bank mustinvest in Islamic nance humancapital b bringing in foreignadvisors and developing its ownhome-grown Shariah scholarsand bankers. And nall the banking sector, led b the Cen-tral Bank, needs to raise aware-ness and education amongstthe Lib an population aboutIslamic nance. As Harris Irfan,head of Dubai-based CordobaCapital told this newspaper: the success of Islamic nancemust depend on demand fromthe man on the street, not the

    BADLISyAH Abdul Ghani,CEO of Mala sias CIMB

    Islamic has said that his Islamic banking unit will be increasingits contribution to its parentcompan s loan book this ear.

    Currentl the Islamic subsid-iar contributes 13.8% to CIMBGroups loan book, but Ghanisaid he was con dent that this

    would increase to between 15%and 19% of the total.

    Ghani was talking toreporters at Halfest a Halal business expo taking place inKuala Lumpur. He was also

    bullish on the outlook for theMala sian econom , despiteglobal fears of a double-diprecession as the econom was

    growing on the back of domesticdemand.

    He predicted a boom for thecountr s SMEs one reason wh CIMB Islamic was involvedin Halfest and the greaterHalal business in Mala sia something he describes as amarriage between faith andeconomics.

    CIMB Islamic ups group contributionsINSIDEP3 WHO NEEDS BANKS

    WITH BITCOINS?

    P5 LETTER FROM AMERICA

    P6 EDITORIAL: INSIGHT

    AND VIM PLEASE

    P8 MIzuHO MOVES IN

    P10 GFH STILL IN THE RED

    Continued on p3

    Issue 30 www.theislamicglobe.com september 7, 2011

    The utures bright: With Gaddaf deposed IF has room to grow in Libya

    http://www.theislamicglobe.com/http://www.theislamicglobe.com/http://www.theislamicglobe.com/
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    http://www.mashreqalislami.com/
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    he Islamic Globe september 7, 2011 3

    A new Islamic ba k p lat Ju

    ith ut s much as th apl mb f a pr ss

    r l as .B the end of August it had

    entered into three MusharakahJVs, made 26 loans and paid itsrst dividends to shareholders all structured and transacted without regulators or institu-

    tional intermediaries.The Islamic Bank of Bitcoinresides exclusivel online us-ing the virtual peer-to-peercurrenc bitcoin. Bitcoin isthe brainchild of computerprogrammer Satoshi Nakamoto widel believed to be an alias who in 2009 released softwareto facilitate the generation andexchange of bitcoins.

    Install the free open-sourcesoftware, run it while on theinternet, and ou will be con-nected to the decentralizedglobal network of bitcoin users.Each time our computer solvesa cr ptographic puzzle ou earn50 bitcoins, or BTC. A pair of unique mathematicall linkedke s provide securit and identi-cation.

    With each transaction the

    software connects our privateke to the other part s publicke . The transaction is veri ed b the online network usinga computation that matches both parties private and publicke s. Once veri ed the transac-tion is stored on a global publicregistr .

    you could sa the currenc is generated without an workdone but like traditional curren-cies, BTC attains value becausepeople want to exchange it forsomething else.

    According to London-basedDonald Norman, owner of bit-coin exchange platform Inter-sango.com, there are currentl approximatel 7.2m bitcoins incirculation, a current value of $60m. The online econom sinfrastructure and network hasgrown so rapidl that ou cannow exchange BTC for tradi-tional currenc .

    The growing list of mer-

    chants accepting BTC, althoughprimaril based online, alsoincludes of ine businesses.

    Mala sian student Hasif Uzirtold The Islamic Globe that theBTC communit has con dencein the Islamic Bank of Bitcoin,and he bought shares when the bank was listed on the bitcoinstock exchange GLBSE.com.

    China-based owner of GLBSE, James McCarth , saidthe approximatel 20 listedcompanies all received startupcapital in BTC, with man pa -ing dividends to shareholders.

    The bitcoin user who startedthe bank is choosing to remainanon mous, surfacing onl when the bank is full read .For now the bank continues tooffer 0% short-term loans foramounts of 2 BTC ($16.48) to5 BTC ($41.20). Borrowers pa a small gratuit , while othersources of revenue include do-nations and returns from JVs.

    ultra-high net worth builderof seven star sk scrapers. Theman on the street knows thatRiba is not allowed; he justdoesnt know how to avoid it.

    The GCC-based Islamic banks might have competitionin what is a blank slate marketfrom Africa though. The fastestgrowing region in the world forIslamic nance is sub-Saharan Africa, and although man of the new pioneers of Islamicnance are from edglingorganizations, the are fastlearners and looking to exploit

    new markets outside of theirtraditional homelands. Lib aoffers bankers from east, westand southern Africa great op-portunities.

    Amman Muhammad,managing executive of AbsaIslamic Banking in South Africa, told The Islamic Globe :Islamic nance has enjo edstrong growth in sub-Saharan Africa underpinned b eco-nomic, political and regula-tor stabilit . While con ict

    and uprisings pose immediatechallenges to an econom , the African Islamic nance indus-tr remains one of the fastergrowing industries, driven b the demand from large Muslimpopulations.

    Lib a was one the fastest-growing economies in Af-rica and the Middle East andchallenging all odds to attractforeign rms to participate inthe development of its privatesector. During that period, thepolitical regime of Gadda wasthe main obstacle. Toda , with anew regime and global supportthe re-construction of Lib aand the promise Lib a offersespeciall in the high valueh drocarbons sector will attractinternational investors.

    Islamic nance can pla a vital role in the rebuilding of Lib a. As Haissam Arabi, CEOof the UAEs Gulfmena Invest-ments, said: Institutionaliza-tion, democrac and a betterdistribution of wealth should

    lead to further development of Arab capital markets and as aresult the demand for Islamicnance and Shariah compli-ant products in Lib a shouldincrease as the demand for in- vestment products will increasein general.

    FOR some time Brunei has beentr ing to diversif its econom awa from h drocarbons, whichit has in abundance, and intomore service-based industries.

    Its initial fora s into nancialservices have been unspectacu-lar although it is one of the fewcountries an where in the worldto issue Shariah compliant debtinstruments without rst goingthrough the learning process of issuing conventional debt.

    The tin nations latest

    endeavors have been in therealm of developing a Halal brand or chop that could be used in a certi cationprocess b manufacturers of products aimed at a devoutMuslim audience. Halalcerti cation would guarantee

    that food products were tfor consumption b Muslims. What Brunei has identi ed isa c nicism amongst Muslimconsumers about whether or notproducts that are labeled Halalhave actuall been producedand packaged in a Halalmanner.

    This latest initiative goesunder the name Brunei Halal.Brunei believes that it alread has trusted Halal status andis one of the few countries

    outside the Middle East to havean internationall recognizedHalal certif ing bod . It wishesto leverage this brand to builda multi-million dollar industr for Brunei. The Halal Journal estimates that the industr was worth $1.2tr in 2010 globall

    with a customer base in theregion of 1.8bn people.

    Noel Shield, interim chief executive of cer of GhanimInternational Food Corpora-tion, the compan handling the brand declined to speak to The Islamic Globe sa ing that BruneiHalal was, currentl undergo-ing a substantial developmentprogram and that he wouldprefer to keep things under wraps until later.

    Last month Philippines trade

    secretar Gregor Domingoindicated Manila was looking toBrunei for help in a bid to cap-ture a share of the global Halalindustr . Domingo said: One of the things well have to do is talkto the Brunei government to seeif the can help.

    Who needs banks

    with Bitcoins?

    Continued from front page

    Libyabeckons

    JF

    Brunei aims to be Halal HubEAA

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    http://www.its.ws/http://www.its.ws/
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    he Islamic Globe september 7, 2011 5

    LETTER FROM AMERICA

    BLAKE GOUD [email protected]

    US-BASed R itUdR, has xpaits j i t v tur ith Ku ait Fi-

    a c H us (KFH) b acquir-i g a 217-u it luxur apartm tc mmu it i Arli gt , Vir-gi ia T t 400 f r $84mi cash a bt.

    This is the second bu b theJV since it began two ears ago with the total investment made being $132m.

    The deal included $49.5m ininterest-onl debt from Fannie

    Mae, alongside equit contribu-tions of $24.2m from KFH and$10.4m, under the 70:30 termsof the joint venture. The FannieMae debt will mature in ve ears and carries a pro t rateof 3.39%, 250bps over com-parable maturit T-bonds. A spokesman for UDR con rmedto The Islamic Globe that allthe debt used to nance the joint ventures acquisitions wasShariah-compliant, but would

    not elaborate on the structureused.

    The original expectation b KFH was to become full invested, up to $450m in totalinvestment value, within atwo- ear period. yet now, two ears from the August an-nouncement of the JV, it onl has two properties, both located

    in the Washington, DC area.Its rst acquisition was a $43mPortico at Silver Spring Metroin the Mar land suburbs in Ma 2010. However, UDR said it hascontinued to make progress ondeplo ing the capital, but didnot provide a set period over which the investments would becompleted.

    So far, the JVs acquisi-tions have focused on the DCMetropolitan area, but there isnothing in the agreement limit-ing geographical scope. UDR said that it is monitoring severalmarkets for potential acquisi-tion targets, but favored theDC market because it has been ver resilient with job creationand stable rents, in contrast topoor emplo ment markets andfalling rents in other areas sincethe end of the nancial crisis. If UDR is right, then it ma havefound the rst good thing tocome out of Washington, DC ina while.

    Fannie Mae in KFHArlington deal

    THe Ca a ia U iv r-sit f dubai (CUd), hich scrib s its lf as: A p rtal t Ca a ia

    ucati , has r c tl b gu t ff r a Is- lamic ba ki g-f cusMBA.

    Th pr gram, hich ill b lau ch lat r this ar, is f cus th m stic mark t,

    but ith th str g li ks b t CUd as v ral u iv rsiti s iCa a a, h r th r

    is a acut sh rtagf p pl ith Islamic ba ki g skills, it s m lik l that th pr gram ill attract Ca a ia s l ki g t buil skills iIslamic a c t tak h m t Ca a a.

    Building skills forCanada in Dubai

    The originalexpectation by KFHwas to become fullyinvested within atwo-year period

    Unicorn sellsVicton toOnCoreUNICORN Investment Bank,a Bahrain-based Islamicinvestment bank is continuingits exit from the US with thesale of its 80% ownershipof the complex electronicsmanufacturing services (EMS)

    compan Victron, a prominentUS-based EMS compan .The exit of Unicorn from

    the US market was attributedto a decision to focus on thecompan s core markets inthe GCC, according to a pressrelease.

    Arlington: Home to the Pentagon and now a beachhead or Islamic nance

    New o ering:CUD unveils Islamic

    banking- ocuseddegree

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    September 7, 2011 The Islamic Globe

    Th Gl b Sa s

    wITH th miff ct f r gim

    cha g v tu-all t ppli g

    Muammar Ga afi i Lib a, asThe Islamic Globe r p rts this k, th qu sti aris s is

    this a g thi g?He follows the former president of Eg pt, Hosni Mubarakand Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, president of Lib as other neighborTunisia into political exile. So the Arab Spring has sprung and with it promises, or so anal sts predicted, of another revolution,this time in Islamic banking across the Middle East and North Africa.

    However, come the onset of fall 2011, is Islamic banking in theMENA region, especiall the NA bit of that acron m, an betterthan in the spring? Id sa no. Although there is huge potential,especiall given the demographics of the NA region, there is along wa to go to create a functioning conventional nance s stem,never mind an Islamic banking s stem.

    Now would be the time for the industr to strike, but given theongoing political, and arguabl economic turmoil in the ME partof the equation there has not been a concerted push to developIslamic nance in the NA region. One would have expectedBahrain to be in the vanguard of this expansion of the industr , but Bahrain is itself experiencing political and civil turmoil, thes mptom of which has been an erosion of the Business-friendl Bahrain faade it has striven so hard to create.

    In fact some of the less kind economic and regional anal stsThe Islamic Globe has spoken to since Februar 14 have beenpredicting the end of Bahrain as a nancial hub. The Islamic Globe does not share this prognosis, and believes that Bahrain still has alot to give to the global Islamic nance industr . However, its gota mountain to climb if its to ght off local competition from thelikes of Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as thought-leaderand rainmaker in terms of Islamic nance; never mind vie with

    Mala sia for the leadership of the emerging markets of Islamicnance in Africa, Central Asia and South East Asia;and if successful will onl put it back to where it was beforeFebruar 2011.

    As for the rest of the ME, despite a shared language andreligion and economic ties with man North Africans working asexpats in the Gulf states, the two regions are distinct and separateand the ties that bind the two regions intangible.

    Despite the supposed political changes in the region andthe argument that the Arab Spring will see the development of moderate democratic Islamist governments, an Islamic nanceindustr springing up in the mold of Islamic nance in Dubai orQatar is unlikel , and if the industr is going to take root and growin the NA region, it will have to be from the bottom-up, with a

    rm foothold in the retail space.This would be the best model, as it would offer greatersustainabilit . However starting at the ground level is thehardest wa to grow a business and it remains to be seen if thereis a political will, economic rationale or popular call for theintroduction of Islamic nance in Eg pt, Lib a and Tunisia. Butthen again, this time last ear Gadda , Mubarak and Ben Ali werethe entrenched strongmen of the region.

    [email protected]

    By John Foster

    North Africa:

    Revolution orEvolution?

    eAGLeMonT MedIA dUBAI London MeLBoURne

    BRUneI

    John FosterManaging Editor & Founder [email protected]+44 7540 268 784

    Paul McNamaraEditor, Founder & [email protected]+971 505743263 or+61406309736Kunal WadhwaniPublisher & [email protected]+971 55 5537290

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    Michael BurgessHead o [email protected]+44 (0) 1923 850 665

    Contributors:Emmy Abdul AlimSteve Mbogo

    The Islamic Globe is a weeklynewspaper published by Eag-

    lemont Media FZ LLC and is aregistered trademark and servicemark o the Eaglemont MediaGroup and its a fliated entities.

    All rights reserved. No parto this publication may bereproduced or used in any ormo advertising without prior per-mission in writing rom eitherthe managing editor or editor.No responsibility or loss oc-casioned to any person actingor re raining rom acting as aresult o material in this publi-cation can be accepted.

    Registered o ce:Eaglemont MediaLevel 9, Monarch O fce TowerOne Sheikh Zayed RoadPO Box 333840, Dubai, UAETel: +971 4 3721439www.eaglemontmedia.com

    Must try harderI have a plea to make. Now that Eid is behind us we are back into

    the working part of the ear, which means that the Islamic nanceconference circuit is starting up again soon. Indeed The IslamicGlobe will be present at a number of events in the coming monthsin Dubai, Bahrain, Kuala Lumpur, Abu Dhabi and London. Theplea is a simple one and is geared towards speakers at theseevents: can ou please put some real effort into our presentations?The industr is on the cusp of something major and attendees atconferences deserve something better than rehashed twaddle thatman speakers have been peddling for the past four ears. Add sometruth. Some insight. Some vim. Some vigor. If ou are privilegedenough to have been asked to speak it is because someone thinks ou have something to sa . Prove them right.

    Th Puzzl r

    Across2 Join Up (6)4 Loan [IF] (5)7 Spoken, or with the mouth (4)8 Pain ul/infamed (4)9 Loss o voice (7)11 Gambling [IF] (5)12 Approval (8)

    13 Observed (4)15 Supernaturally perceptive (7)17 Particle (4)18 Economic Transaction [IF] (8)20 Waste ul Spending [IF] (6)21 A contract between two people [IF] (7)22 Immoderateness, exaggeration &

    waste [IF] (5)

    Answers to The Puzzler will be available from September 13 at www.theislamicglobe.com. Please send an email to the [email protected] for a chance to win a cop of Case Studiesin Islamic Banking & Finance b Brian Kettell.

    1 2 3

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    6 7

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    Down1 The whatever years (5)3 Act o piling-up (8)4 Head Honcho (7)5 Thriving [IF] (5)6 Debt [IF] (4)9 Downpayment [IF] (5)10 Political union o Germany &

    Austria (9)14 Wielded (7)16 The World (5)17 Tangle (3)19 Commission/ ees [IF] (2,4)

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    0 September 7, 2011 The Islamic Globe

    d ar diar ,I have never been soexcited in m life! I am sitting

    in a posh three star hotel in Kow-loon which is in Hong Kong! No, Iam not on holida ; I am a core part of the Banks Sukuk Roadshow accordingto General Manager who is here withme. Well, when I sa with me, GeneralManager, CEO and Chairman are in Hong Kongtoo but the are sta ing over on the island ina ver old hotel called The Mandarin whichdoesnt sound half so much fun as the LeighMarvins Garden Hotel where I am sta ing.

    I feel so honoured to be here. We all ew overtogether. Well, when I sa together I mean onthe same ight since there is no wa , Jose thatGeneral Manager could have tted into the seatsin the econom section of the aircraft beside mesince she is Quite Wide. And of course Chair-man and CEO took their own little plane in or-der to save the bank mone on the airfares. Eventhe ight was exciting since instead of cutler wegot to eat with little wooden sticks. you shouldtr Eating Raspberr Jell With Little Sticks! Itsso funn !

    I shall be awa from home for a whole weeksince we are seeing major investors in all thecore markets and this means lots of travel. Sadl we are not going to London since I would loveto have seen it, since I know it like the backof m hand from watching Mar Poppins (m favourite movie)!

    But perhaps the most exciting thing of thelot is that after we arrived in Hong Kong I wentto a night market and I managed to get m self a Genuine Rolex Submariner with a GreenUnidirectional Bezel for onl $15. That was anincredible deal since the fellow selling it wantedover $100 but I managed to bargain him down.

    The Sukuk Roadshow itself was less excit-ing than I had hoped and mostl involved mehanding out booklets, or prospectuses as we callthem, to shabb looking men in dandruff suits.Then some of the staff gave little speeches whileshowing PowerPoint presentations and then we

    all had Chinese tea and spring rolls. I found itquite hard casuall to show off m new GreenRolex without spilling the Chinese tea all downm front but towards the end I got the hang of it.

    I was amazed at how man spring rolls Gen-eral Manager could eat, and I think the Chinese waiters were quite astonished too since the ended up giving her a tra of her own followed b another. I chatted to her for a while, hopingthat she would notice m new watch, but she was too bus chewing to sa an thing that Icould understand.

    We leave tomorrow on the Sukuk Roadshowfor Australia! Can ou imagine? All those KoalaBears, Crocodiles and Lions and things! I shall be sad to leave this hotel, mind ou, although itis a bit nois and a bit cockroach but it has somuch life!

    Follow Aboubakar online at www.theislamicglobe.com where he helps solve readers marketing problems

    onCe th arli g f thIslamic a c i ustr ,Gulf Fi a c H us is

    a ap cr phal talf a r markabl ris a fall f ai stituti that v r- xt its lf ith ambiti us r al stat a v tur s b f r th c llaps f th rl

    c m i 2008.The Bahraini banks latest results,

    an $11.2m second quarter loss, doesntmake eas reading for man whoregarded GFH as the Blackstone of Islamic nance. The ling on theBahrain Bourse reported that thesecond quarter losses were: mainl due to higher nance expenses andexchange rates.

    However, the banks backers mighttake some crumbs of comfort in thatthis time last ear GFH was reportinga loss of $40.2m. But as the sa , oneswallow doesnt make a summer andthe GFH team has a long wa to go if the want to turn the performance of the bank around.

    The paring of the banks losses sawit turn a modest pro t of $700,000for the rst half of the ear with totalincome climbing 27% to $32.8m on the back of asset sell-offs, including exitsfrom investments in Bahrain FinancialHarbor, Qinvest and Saudi Real EstateCompan which raised some $300mand the settlement of liabilities. Andas The Islamic Globe reported in June,the bank was also casting aroundfor help from the Islamic capital

    markets, issuing a $500m convertibleMurabahah.

    However, past form has notdiminished GFHs appetite for foreign ventures, with Esam Janahi [ pictured ],the rms executive chairman recentl signing a partnership agreement with Wadhwa Group of India to develop theMumbai Economic Development Zone.In Jul Janahi sold 7m of his GFHshares, valued at BD527,800 ($1.4m)to Al Ahlia Bahrain. Trading in GFH was suspended last month because thecompan had not disclosed its nancialreports for the rst half of the ear intime.

    The bank had not responded to arequest for comment b the time thenewspaper went to press.

    GFH staysin the red

    JF

    PUBLIC Mutual, Mala sias largest pri- vate unit trust compan has announcedthat is launching a Sukuk fund.

    The new fund, one of three launchesthis week b Public Mutual, will investat least 75% of its net asset value in aportfolio of Sukuk taking positions in both sovereign and corporate Sukuk

    with the balance invested in Islamicmone market instruments.Interestingl for a Mala sian fund,

    the PB Sukuk Fund has the mandateto invest up to 30% of its NAV inforeign Sukuk in markets whichinclude Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, UK, Indonesia, US and

    South Korea. Man of these marketshave et to authorize Islamic nanceinstruments, and Public Mutualmight be tr ing to get the jump on itscompetitors b creating a Sukuk fundthat has a true global outlook.

    The rm is also launching a conven-tional Asian emerging growth equit

    fund, which will have a small-cap Asianemerging market focus and a conven-tional global bond fund.

    The minimum investment in theSukuk fund is RM1,000 ($335). PublicMutual had not responded to requestsfor comment b the time The IslamicGlobe went to press.

    Public launches Sukuk und

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  • 8/4/2019 The Islamic Globe No 30 070911

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    KenyAS i sura cr gulat r has sai that th r has ba sharp i cr as

    i th umb r f c v ti ali sur rs quiri g ab ut

    s tti g up Takaful i s t tap th gr i g ma f rIslamic a c i th c u tr .

    The number of enquireshas gone up from a ver fewto more than 10 this ear and we are having discussions withthose companies, Samm Makove [ pictured ], CEO of theInsurance Regulator Authorit (IRA) told The Islamic Globe .

    He said, however, that theIRA is taking its time to give thego ahead to these companies because of the shortage of Takaful regulation skills inthe countr . We have to beread and have adequate skills

    to regulate this new line of business, he said.

    The IRA is currentl train-ing its own staff to improvetheir understanding of Shariah

    compliant insurance products.He said the IRA is advisingconventional insurers to formconventional Takaful subsidiar-ies instead of windows becausethe experience of countries like

    Mala sia has showed Takafulconsumers prefer bu ing fromcompanies that do not have an conventional attachments.

    Takaful regulation skillsgained b IRA workers willalso be used to help other East African countries set up theirTakaful regulation departments.

    We have signed an agree-ment with all the East AfricaCommunit (EAC) countries oncooperation regarding Takaful,he said.

    The EAC includes Ken a,Uganda, Tanzania, Rwandaand Burundi. South Sudan hasobserver status.

    Takaful News

    Everyone wantsto be in TakafulSAUDI Arabia, one of the worlds top three Takaful mar-kets ma be in for a consider-able shake-up in terms of the wa it operates.

    Uncon rmed reports havereached The Islamic Globe thatthe Saudi Arabian Monetar Agenc , SAMA, is solicit-ing opinion amongst Takaful

    operators about changing theiroperating model over to one of cooperative insurance.

    It is understood that adelegation of senior Takafulshareholders from the indus-tr in Saudi Arabia met withthe SAMA governor recentl to discuss this same issue andthat more work is being done toreach a conclusion that will besatisfactor to all parties.

    Naturall an decisionthat affects one GCC countr has the potential to have anoverspill effect into neighboringcountries where Takaful isprevalent.

    Prospects dim for Qatari Takaf

    All eyeson Saudi

    THe Qatari i sura c aTakaful mark t is u rg i ga sl ith l cal rms,mai l p rati g i th -lif

    s ct r. Acc r i g t r p rts, t talpr ts f r th h l mark tl gr b 2% i th rst half

    f 2011, c mpar t a 9% risi 2010 i th sam p ri .

    Th r p rt, hich i clu sQatar Islamic I sura c

    a al Khal j Takaful, as ll as c v ti al rms,Qatar G ral I sura c &R i sura c , Qatar I sura c

    a d ha I sura c , asaggr gat b Qatar excha g .

    o f th primar r as scit b th i sur rs ith

    r gar s t th l r thaxp ct pr ts i th rst half f 2011 is u t thris i pr miums i l t

    r i sura c c mpa i s.R i sura c pr mium

    i l i g has ris b 8% f rQatars i sura c c mpa i s

    i 2011, ith thr c mpa i sactuall i l i g m r tha55% f t tal ritt pr miums t r i sur rs.

    SB

    http://www.mcca.com.au/