RUSSIA - Russian-Led Development Bank Plans to Expand Islamic Financing

www.bloomberg.com - Eurasian Development Bank, a Russian-led lender backed by six former Soviet republics, wants to expand Shariah-compliant financing after helping arrange a deal last year, Chief Executive Officer Igor Finogenov said.

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

RUSSIA - TATARISTAN - Kazan IV International Islamic Business and Finance Summit - March 1, 2012

islamic-finance.ru - International Investment Forum KAZANINVEST 2012, organized together with IV International Islamic Business and Finance Summit KAZANSUMMIT, will be held in Kazan on 1 March, 2012. KAZANINVEST 2012 is being organized by Tatarstan Investment Development Agency.

The main objective of KAZANINVEST 2012 is to attract foreign direct investment in small and medium business projects. At forum the pick-of-the-day will be investment generation and increasing of regions investment attraction.  (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)

TATARISTAN - Tatarstan is a good proposition for Muslim investors

telegraph.co.uk - The Muslim-majority region of Tatarstan has proved to be an attractive investment destination for funds – for both Russian Muslims and foreign investors based in Muslim countries.

Worshipped: the Kul Sharif Mosque stands in the grounds of Kazan's Kremlin
 

Tatarstan’s mosques now stand harmoniously side-by-side with Orthodox churches, but it is traditionally a Muslim region and it still has a Muslim majority. This, coupled with Tatarstan’s huge development potential, makes it a good proposition for Muslim investors.

Two Islamic funds have recently launched operations in Tatarstan. The first is the Malaysian private equity firm AmanahRaya Capital Group, which has already launched several projects in the republic. “We bypassed Moscow and came to Kazan, as it offers the most attractive investment climate,” says managing director Dato Ahmad Rodzi Pawanteh. (source)

RUSSIA - TATARISTAN - Kazan capitalizes on its Muslim heritage - Tatarstan: Nick Watson takes a look into the state of foreign investment

rbth.ru - The Muslim-majority region has proved to be an interesting investment destination for funds with Muslim shareholders or that are based in Muslim countries.

Kazan (RBTH). Although there has been much speculation about Muslim investors moving into Russia, the situation has been one of all talk and no action – until now. Two Islamic funds have recently launched operations in the Muslim-majority Republic of Tatarstan.  (source - original source)

RUSSIA - TATARISTAN - Tatarstan Islamic finance hub ambitions boosted

LONDON, Sept 14 (IFR) - Russian republic Tatarstan's ambition to develop a Sharia-compliant market received a boost this week when the Kazan-based AK Bars Bank became the first Tatar credit to secure a murabaha loan.

It was also the first international loan facility compliant with Sharia canons for a Russian bank .

Earlier this year Tatarstan announced an Islamic finance initiative to promote the sector, and the Ba1/NR/BBB- rated Muslim-majority republic backed this up with plans to tap the Sharia-compliant market with sukuk paper. (source)

RUSSIA - AK BARS Bank closes $60 million Murabaha financing

CPIFINANCIAL.NET - AK BARS Bank has successfully closed the debut in CIS one-year syndicated Murabaha financing for the total amount of $60 million. Citi and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) acted as exclusive Joint Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners (source)

RUSSIA - Third International Islamic Business and Finance Summit opens in Kazan

“Russia should with time evolve into one of the key actors on the Islamic finance market,” President of Tatarstan noted. 

(Kazan, June 20, Tatar-inform, Alia Sabirova). The 3rd International Islamic Business and Finance Summit (Kazansummit) has today officially opened in Kazan.

Attendees at the opening ceremony were President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov, Russia’s permanent representative at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Kamil Iskhakov, Agency for Investment Development head and summit’s organising committee chairman Linar Yakupov, and foreign visitors, including the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade general director Allal Ruchdi and UK House of Lords member Nazir Ahmed. (source)

RUSSIA - Changes to Law Needed to Facilitate Sukuk Use

JAKARTA — Russian borrowers are pitching plans to sell the nation's first Islamic bonds even as regulators lag behind in customizing laws for the industry.

Executives from Gazprombank, the lending arm of gas export monopoly Gazprom, are in Southeast Asia to seek support for issuance by as many as five companies, Alexander Kazakov, director of structured and syndicated finance at the bank, said in Jakarta. Tatarstan, a Muslim-majority Russian republic, will announce a dollar-denominated sale soon, according to Kuala Lumpur-based adviser AmanahRaya Investment Bank, which is working on the proposal. (source)

RUSSIA - Indonesia shares experience in Islamic banking

The training of economists and bankers from Russia on various aspects of Islamic banking began on June 13, 2011, in Jakarta, in the Islamic bank Bank Muamalat Indonesia (BMI).

On the first day of the training, BMI Head of International Relations department, Mr. Farouk Alvini, welcomed the Russian delegation and informed them of the recent performance of the bank. Particularly, he noted that BMI is the second largest Islamic bank in Indonesia with the asset growth of 30% per year. (source)

RUSSIA - Russia enters world of Islamic finance

The bonds are to be issued by the majority Muslim Russian republic of Tatarstan in the Volga region, which has embarked on an ambitious drive to attract foreign investment.

"Russia will show that it can be interesting for Muslim countries," one of the project's backers, Linar Yakupov told AFP. (source - msn news)

RUSSIA - TATARISTAN - Sheikh Saleh Kamel announced he will invest $ 2.000.000 in Tatarstan

Yesterday the President of Tatarstan Rustam N. Minnikhanov hosted the delegation from the Chamber of Commerce of Jeddah, headed by the chairman of the Council of Chambers of Commerce of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, chairman of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce of Jeddah, Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel. (source)

RUSSIA - Russian laws to be adopted for functioning of Islamic financing institutes

Russian legislative system will not be an obstacle for Islamic financing institutes of Russia, the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov stated in Dubai, RIA Novosti reports.

“Our bank laws partially don’t correspond to work with Islamic financing, but we have analyzed this issue and it appears the problem can be solved,” Minnikhanov stated at the opening ceremony of Annual Investment Meeting 2011 in Dubai. (full story)

RUSSIA - Market Emerging for Islamic Finance

Vladimir Baranov / Sanoma Independent Media

 

Gazprombank has been researching and developing Islamic finance tools for several years, director of the bank's structured and syndicated finance department Alexander Kazakov said.

Islamic finance may debut this year in the Tatarstan republic in the form of sukuk, or  bonds that, in accordance with Islamic law, do not charge interest, experts said at a World Islamic Economic Forum round-table discussion Wednesday.

"Russia is ready for sukuk," director of the Gazprombank structured and syndicated finance department Alexander Kazakov said. "They can make Russia a lot of money. A trillion dollars."(full story)

RUSSIA - For Islamic finance, Tartarstan to be Russia's test case

Officials meeting in the shadow of the snowy towers of Kazan's 16th century white Kremlin are in an unlikely site for hatching groundbreaking financial plans. But Kazan in Russia's Tartarstan region aims to be the first place in Russia to launch an Islamic bond, with a planned $100m-200m sukuk issue planned for July this year that will be a test case for the appetite for Islamic financial products in Russia.

Countries ranging from France and the UK, Thailand to Brazil are all exploring how to use Islamic financial investment to draw gulf petrodollars into their economies. The Islamic finance industry has boomed in recent years, growing at a rate of over 14% per annum from around $150bn since the 1990s to a total of $14.1 trillion in 2009, according to Jamelah Jamaluddin, CEO of Kuwait Finance House in Malaysia. The growth is to "serve over a billion people who have previously been underserviced," by the financial industry, she notes. (full story)

RUSSIA - EVENTS - Tataristan - Conference: “Sukuk – a new instrument for regional infrastructure development” (March 24, 2011)

Conference: “Sukuk – a new instrument for regional infrastructure development”

On 24, March 2011 an International Conference: "Sukuk – a new instrument for regional infrastructure development" will be held in Kazan, Russia. The conference will be a sub event in the run-up to the III annual International Islamic Business and Finance Summit KAZANSUMMIT 2011. (source)

RUSSIA - Islamic Finance Opportunities within the Russian Tax and Legal Regime

On 24 December 2010 the Association of Russian Regional Banks conducted a meeting to discuss Islamic finance opportunities. The Association unites over 450 members, including banks, non-banking financial institutions and organisations related to the financial industry. Taxand Russia highlights the topic of discussion on delivering proposals for the Strategy of Development of the Banking Industry in Russia until the year 2015. The Strategy is being prepared by Central Bank of Russia.

It was concluded that in general there are no obstacles for executing transactions in accordance with Sharia principles even under the current tax and legal environment. However, in the regulated banking sector there may be restrictions for Islamic finance transactions based on the regulations and bylaws. The major obstacle is that russian banks in general may not be involved in buy-sell transactions with commodities, what is required for some Islamic finance transactions, e.g.Murabaha (sale on credit). It must be noted that the russian banks are explicitly allowed to participate in lease transactions, often used in Islamic lease securitisation (Sukuk-al-ijara). (source)

RUSSIA - MALAYSIA - Amanah Raya to help set up Islamic bank in Kazakhstan

Malaysian trustee company Amanah Raya Berhad is joining forces with Fattah Finance, a local Kazakh brokerage company, and the state-owned Development Bank of Kazakhstan to conduct a feasibility study to establish the second Islamic bank in the CIS country. The aim is to submit an application for an Islamic-banking license later this year under new legislation introduced by Kazakhstan in 2009 to facilitate the establishment of Islamic banks and the introduction of Islamic financial products in the country. (source)

RUSSIA - Tatarstan set for debut sukuk

Khaled Al-Aboodi CEO of ICD

By MUSHTAK PARKER | ARAB NEWS

Published: Jan 3, 2011 00:42 Updated: Jan 3, 2011 00:55 

Following the visit of President Rustam Minnikhanov of the Russian republic of Tatarstan to Malaysia in December and the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Kuala Lumpur between the Tatarstan government, the local IFC Linova, Malaysia’s Amanah Raya Berhad Group and Kuwait Finance House Malaysia (KFH Malaysia) whereby the parties would cooperate in facilitating the issuance of the debut sovereign sukuk of Tatarstan, work on the feasibility study on the sukuk origination is set to start this month.

RUSSIA - Rustam Minnikhanov negotiates use of Islamic banking in project financing in Tatarstan

(Kazan, December 6, Tatar-inform). Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov has during a working visit to Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, held meetings.

Rustam Minnikhanov is on a two-day working visit to Abu Dhabi (4-5 December).

Tatarstan President negotiated investments in the Tatarstan economy with the Al Hilal bank’s CEO Mohammed Jamil Berro and the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s President Tirad Mahmoud.