Even in retirement he remains the most popular politician to the Muslim "man-and-woman-in-the-street". Now as an elder statesman, Mahathir Mohamed, the former Malaysian prime minister, continues to give advice whether on the global financial crisis, on the future of the Islamic banking industry, on the Islamic gold dinar, on the future of US dollar as an international trading currency, and on his celebrated spat with arch speculator and fund manager, George Soros, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1998. (source)
Governors of central banks and monetary authorities of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries, meeting at Sasana Kijang in Kuala Lumpur in November under the aegis of the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESTRIC) and hosted by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), could be excused for being pre-occupied with matters pertaining to the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and its impact on member countries. (source)
The Kuala Lumpur-based International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), the Shariah research entity of Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, has embarked on an ambitious strategic plan for 2012 which focuses on strengthening its global reach, further enhancing the quality of its activities and increasing its connectivity with market players and industry stakeholders. (source)
The launching of the Islamic Interbank Benchmark Rate (IIBR) by Thomson Reuters in Bahrain last week is the latest manifestation of how the technical architecture of the global Islamic financial industry is maturing. To many the pace of maturity remains frustratingly slow, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, while Asia is galloping ahead, which has resulted in a lob-sided West Asia and East Asia fault line. (source)
In the wake of the impact of the continuing global financial crisis, the euro zone debt crisis and the so-called Arab Spring - and their economic impact on global and regional markets including member countries of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector funding arm of the IDB Group, is embarking on a new strategy to take its financing directly to its constituencies and to make its financing impact more on the real economy through the generation of employment and promoting growth. This includes opening regional offices; setting up two new departments at the ICD; launching more Ijara (leasing companies) in diverse markets such as Albania, Saudi Arabia and Algeria; establishing SME investment funds including a SR1 billion fund for Saudi Arabia; and establishing a mortgage finance company in Saudi Arabia in anticipation of the long-awaited mortgage law. (source)
