RUSSIA - Russian Banks to Begin Trading in Islamic Debt

JAKARTA, Indonesia — VTB Group and Gazprombank are vying to become the first Russian borrowers to sell Islamic debt in a bid to attract Middle Eastern investment.

VTB, Russia's second-largest bank, aims this year to raise about $200 million selling sukuk, debt that complies with Islam's ban on interest, Herbert Moos, the lender's deputy chairman, said in an interview Wednesday. Gazprombank, the lending arm of gas export monopoly Gazprom, is in talks with at least 10 Moscow-based companies on arranging a sale and will meet investors in the Persian Gulf in September, said Alexander Kazakov, director of structured and syndicated finance. (full story)

RUSSIA - Interview with Madina Kalimullina, Director of Economic Department of Russia Muftis Council

Ms. Madina, as expert in the sphere of theory and practice of Islamic economy, how do you estimate the level of Islamic Finance development in our country? 

For a long time, the Russian market featured a substantial uncertainty with regard to Islamic finance. In 3-4 years period after the revocation of the license from a well-known project "Badr-Forte Bank" and closure of «Manzil» project that was dealing with the financing of real estates purchase, the market has gathered enough information and interest in Islamic finance. Still, there was no project, probably except for BrokerCreditService's mutual fund "Halal", which unfortunately was launched at the beginning of the last financial crisis. I neither give as example payment card projects as they do not reflect the essence and content of Islamic finance. It should be noted as well that lots of projects were announced, but most of them were never launched so far. In my opinion, there is a reasonable explanation for that.(full story)