RUSSIA - VTB: The importance of being Islamic

www.euroweek.com - If VTB manages, on its third attempt, to issue a sukuk then the Russian bank will have achieved for conventional issuers what Goldman Sachs couldn’t and Crédit Agricole didn’t dare. Demonstrating that such business is possible would do a big favour for the Islamic finance market — and the Russians themselves. (source)

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)

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

vestnikkavkaza.net- 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)

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 - 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 - 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)