WORLD - REGULATIONS - Islamic finance pressured to join accounting mainstream

www.reuters.com - (Reuters) - Rapid growth of Islamic finance is increasing pressure for the industry to enter the accounting mainstream, by seeking guidance from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the global body which sets the tone for book-keeping in conventional finance.

It would be a controversial move - by basing itself on religious principles, Islamic finance seeks to set itself apart from conventional finance. But some experts think the industry is becoming so big that it can no longer sit comfortably outside a trend towards harmonising accounting rules across the world.  (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Sharia banking industry sees 46.55% rise in assets

en.bisnis.com - JAKARTA: Sharia-based banking industry in Indonesia had its total assets increase 46.55% at end-September from a year ago. Total assets grew to IDR126 trillion from IDR85.97 trillion at end of September 2010.

The figure consists of IDR123 trillion from full-fledged Sharia General Banks (BUS) and Sharia Business Units (UUS), IDR3 trillion from Sharia Credit Banks (BPRS), said Bank Indonesia Director Mulya Siregar. (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - UAE Eye Indonesian Banks

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The United Arab Emirates is interested in investing in Indonesia’s banking sector. Mansyur Pangeran, the Indonesia Consulate-General to UAE, said that two of the country’s major banks have shown serious interest in exploring the possibility of bank purchase.  (source)

PHILIPPINES - Opinion - Why not Islamic finance?

An efficient capital market is one where persons who require capital or financing and persons able to supply such requirements have free access to one another through a wide variety of financial instruments, publicly available information and, yes, even modes of transaction consistent with their religious and moral beliefs.

For centuries, the most familiar and traditional way of raising capital in the Western world has been through incurring debt. In a sense, the business of moneylending has been associated with one particular faith – that of the Jews to the extent that Shakespeare’s fictional Jewish character of Shylock in the “Merchant of Venice” has come to stereotype the cut-throat ethos associated with moneylending (“shylock” now being slang for a usurer).  (full story)