BANKING - Gulf lenders eye Indonesia acquisitions (ABG - QIB - AFB - StanChart saadiq)

Dubai: Albaraka Banking Group and Qatar Islamic Bank aim to acquire Sharia-compliant lenders in Indonesia as the central bank estimates the nation's Islamic assets will increase by as much as 55 per cent this year.

Albaraka, Bahrain's biggest publicly traded bank, plans to spend $100 million on an acquisition, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Ahmad Yousuf said in a March 28 interview in Istanbul. (full story)

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.

ISLAMIC LAW - Tawarruq: Shariah Risk or Banking Conundrum?

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Tawarruq: Shariah Risk or Banking Conundrum? Nikan Firoozye, Ph.D

Source : http://www.opalesque.com/OIFI12/Featured_Structure_Tawarruq_Shariah_Risk_or_Banking679.html - July 3, 2009