RUSSIA - Russian, Azerbaijani and Kazakh banks to form a United Islamic Bank

www.businessislamica.com -The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) and Russia’s VTB Bank plan to invite one of Kazakhstan’s leading banks to form the United Islamic Bank of the CIS, Trend cites Bekham Gurbanzade, head of a working group of the IBA.

Baku hosted the Fourth International Bank Conference of CIS States in early December 2011. The VTB and IBA made agreements. The Russian bank will use the experience of Azerbaijani specialists and consultants in Islamic banking, Azerbaijan will use the experience of the VTB. Efforts were united within the framework of the Financial and Banking Council of the CIS. (source)

GERMANY - German Bank Offers ‘Islamic-Compliant’ Investment

www.businessislamica.com - German bank WestLB rolled out a new “Islam-compliant” investment product named the Islamic Strategy Index Certificate. T

he value of the certificate is based on the value of the WestLB Islamic Deutschland Index, consisting of shares of ten German firms “whose business activities are consistent with the ethical rules of Islam.”  The prospectus explains that “for the selection [of stocks] it is in principle not permitted that the business activity of the chosen firms involve interest-bearing financial services or derivatives, insurance, alcohol, tobacco, pork, armaments, gambling, gold and silver hedging transactions, or the entertainment industry.”  (source)

RUSSIA - Russian expands Islamic Finance

www.businessislamica.com - Eurasian Development Bank, a Russian-led lender backed by six former Soviet republics, wants to expand Sharia-compliant financing, Chief Executive Officer Igor Finogenov said.

“Islamic finance is an opportunity for us to enter new credit markets,” Finogenov told reporters in Moscow recently. “We hope it will allow us to diversify our liability base.” (source)

FRANCE - France awaits Islamic finance

BELIEVING IN SHARIAH BANKING DID NOT YET TRANSLATE INTO A WORKABLE FRENCH SECTOR

For more than 20 years, French banks have offered their expertise in financing operations (BNP Paribas Najmah, Crdit Agricole) for top companies or government projects in the GCC region. They are although a major actor of the Takaful industry (AXA, SCOR). If French companies were able to provide solutions abroad, it nevertheless appears that the only country where there are not yet operating in is, of all places, France. But thats about to change.

FIRST FRENCH PRODUCTS IN ISLAMIC FINANCE In 2007, the French regulator, namely the AMF, was the first to move forward when it published a regulatory instruction concerning funds. At this time, Islamic finance was unknown in France but lead by the French banks, the AMF introduced a little revolution by authorizing funds to use non-financial criteria in their fund management constraints. In order to be fully Shari'ah compliant, it added to the rule the possibility for funds to distribute at most 10% of their annual benefits to a third party which would not be part of the fund shareholders but regulated under the French law. This allowed funds to give non-Shari'ah benefits to charity organisations at the end of each business year. Following the introduction of this new rule, 14 Islamic funds and trackers have been listed in Paris since then and many more are in the process of being listed.  (source)

RUSSIA - The Akbars Bank debut Islamic Syndication

by Alberto Brugnoni - ASSAIF - On 17 December 2010, at 4.30 in the morning, I was standing outside my hotel in Kazan in the middle of a snowstorm waiting for Anatoly, my driver, to take me to the airport. I had to board the early flight heading back to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport to catch my connection that would take me back to my much coveted wandering life as an Islamic finance consultant in the Middle East.  (source)

EUROPE - ARTICLE - Islamic Banking and Finance on the European Market

(by ISFIN) Islamic Finance, developed during the 70's in the Muslim countries, is experiencing an increasing popularity far outside the Muslim World's frontiers. In a world where the dominance of the capitalist economy is obvious, the development of a system where the main principle is the exclusion the interest rate comes close to being an exploit. At first, Islamic finance has been implemented in the Western World mainly to benefit from the advantages offered by European financial centers such as the Luxembourg and Switzerland. From this first tendency, only the corporate and private banking clients have taken advantage of. It is only recently that retail services started to be offered on the Western territory, conscious of the increasing economic power of the different European Muslim communities. (full article and source)

UK - Islamic bank of Brittain launches the UK's only Shariah compliant retail discretionary portfolio service (DPS)

Based on Prmiums DPS Select service, Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) will ensure the Shari'ah compliance of the discretionary investment services to investors based both in the UK and overseas. This follows IBBs announcement of a $31.5 million capital injection from Qatar International Islamic Bank. (source)

LUXEMBOURG - Luxembourg, a significant hub for Islamic finance

Although the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a very small country in terms of area and population (2,586 km2 and 502,000 inhabitants), it is one of the most important financial centers all over Europe. Nowadays, Luxembourg is considered to be the first European financial centre and globally the second after the United States of America in terms of fund industry. Furthermore, Luxembourg is recognized as one of the leading Islamic financial centers through its history in the field of Islamic finance and its continuous efforts to develop this sector.  (source)

GERMANY - Strong interest in no interest banking: An Overview of Islamic Finance in Germany

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin (Bundesbank and German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) sent two representatives on an Islamic finance congress. Dr. Johannes Engels, senior advisor and Robert Elsen, deputy head of the section for technical co-operation, both contributed to the World Islamic Finance Conference held this year in London, March 28/29. The conference featured such prominent figures of the Islamic finance world as Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, Shari'ah scholar from Bahrain who is a member of more than 80 Shari'ah-boards advising Islamic financial institutions and is considered to be one of the top ten leading Shari'ah-scholars in the world. The conference is not the first effort undertaken by the BaFin to jump start Islamic Banking in Germany.  (source)

LUXEMBOURG - Shipping and logistics industries: Being Halal in Luxembourg?

The basic concepts and main elements

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, estimated to have 1.6 billion followers in 2010, and 2.2 billion in 2030 as per the projections made by the Pew Research Center for its report issued in January 2011. In Europe, the Muslim community represents 6% of the population in 2010 (44.1 Million people) and it should represent 8% in 2030 (58.2 Million people).

The term -Halal is applied to various aspects of the Muslim community life. Halal is used to describe anything permissible / lawful under Islam, in contrast to -Haram which is anything forbidden.

As per The International Halal Integrity Alliance, Halal food must be clean and pure and made in accordance with the Islamic guidelines.  (source)