INDONESIA - BANKING - Affin awaits Indonesian central bank nod

www.thestar.com,my  - KUALA LUMPUR: Affin Holdings Bhd will patiently continue to wait for Bank Sentral Republik Indonesia (BSRI), the Indonesian central bank’s formal agreement to allow Affin to hold at least a 51% stake in PT Bank Ina Perdana.

“The informal indications so far seems to be quite positive. If possible, we want it to be formalised,” Affin deputy chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said at a press conference after the AGM yesterday.

Lodin said Affin would renegotiate the stake purchase price should the actual stake buy be less than the targeted 80% initially as “different stakes have different premiums”.  (source)

ISLAMIC TRADING PLATFORM - Trade push reshaping Islamic finance’s regional rivalry

MANAMA, Aug 19 — Arshad Khan, the chief of the Bahrain Financial Exchange, had envisaged a global Islamic trading platform when he set out to work with Malaysia’s stock exchange this year.

Though the talks fell through, Khan thinks there may be other partnerships in the future, reflecting a desire to collaborate that could help close an age-old divide between the two regions which has impeded the growth of Islamic finance.  “The agreement (with Malaysia’s stock exchange) is still there and we’re still exchanging information,” Khan said. “We can still create synergies later on.”

Split by an age-old rivalry stemming from the fight for market share and differences in sharia interpretation, Islamic banking hubs Malaysia and the Middle East have struggled to work together in the past, resulting in fragmented standards and localised markets which have divided the industry.