PORTUGAL - 1st Portuguese Islamic Finance Conference & Workshop - July 6th 2012 – Lisbon

Celebrating 100 years of tradition and excellence in serving its members by crossing a new frontier and offering insight into the growing industry of Islamic finance, the British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce, together with its partner Asian Cooperation Enterprise, is privileged to host the first Portuguese Islamic finance workshop in Lisbon.

Attended by high profile personalities in both conventional and Islamic banking, it is set to become a reference point for the cooperation between the two financial worlds. Dignified by esteemed Sharia specialists, from the world's most prominent and successful Islamic finance institutions, it is aimed at both educating the high level conventional bankers with regard to Islamic finance and facilitating networking between powerful entities in Portugal, the Gulf Cooperation Council and South East Asia. (source)

GERMANY - CIMB Principal : Malaysians to bring Islamic banking to Germany

www.dw.de - Islamic investing represents a 1.2 trillion euro market. Now one Malaysian firm wants to bring the trend to Germany. Others have tried and failed before, so it could be a struggle.

Confident and professional, the female chief executive of Malaysia-based CIMB-Principal recently gave a press conference in Frankfurt about the only registered Islamic investment fund in Germany.
With uncovered hair, red lipstick and silver earrings, Noripah Kamso said, "I want to share the new i-word with you. It doesn't stand for iPad, iPhone or inflation–but for Islamic banking."  (source)

UK - EDUCATION - Advent of Islamic banking in the UK (videoclip)

LUXEMBOURG - Luxembourg stands tall

You don't have to big to be mighty, and Luxembourg is living proof of that. This tiny land-locked nation at the heart of Europe has always punched well above its weight in terms of financial services, and despite its small geographical size and a population shy of half a million, Luxembourg can lay claim to being the world's second largest investment fund center after the US, the most important private banking center in the Eurozone and Europe's leading center for reinsurance. (full story - zawya)