MALAYSIA - OPINION - Ramadan wish list for Islamic finance

www.btimes.com.my - WHAT THE GOAL IS: The central issue is about the industry controlling its own destiny
“Behind every success is endeavour… behind endeavour, ability… behind ability, knowledge… behind knowledge, a seeker ….” Unknown.
AS THE blessed month of Ramadan arrives, here is my “seeking” list for Islamic finance. It’s not about another voice asking when the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) will issue its first paper or disagreeing with CIMB Group CEO Datuk Seri Nazir Razak’s comment on “rolling back” government’s involvement in business, but more to do with controlling our own Islamic finance manifest destiny.   (source)

THAILAND - OPINION - Closing the gap: the next big step for Islamic banking

www.nationmultimedia.com - Fifteen years ago, Muslims wishing to take out a mortgage, use a credit card or deposit money into a current account would have been hard pushed to do so and stay compliant with Shariah law.
With few Islamic banks around - and a limited range of Shariah products - banking as a Muslim invariably involved compromising either your faith or your financial needs.
Today, in many markets, such compromise is no longer necessary. Islamic banking is becoming a part of the mainstream, widely available across financial products and geographies. In 2012, Islamic banking assets are expected to reach US$1.1 trillion (Bt34.7 trillion) globally, up 33 per cent on 2010, according to Ernst & Young. Within just a few years, Islamic banking has transformed into a global industry.
There are three major drivers behind this extraordinary journey - three reasons why I believe Islamic banking will keep on growing far into the next decade. (source)

MALAYSIA - OPINION - Lost in translation ?

www.cpifinancial.com - It ought to be the Editor of Islamic Business & Finance’s dream to be sent to Kuala Lumpur, a city whose space-age skyscrapers house the institutions responsible for developing the world’s most sophisticated Islamic finance market. However, as I walked its bustling streets I soon learned that the wonders of Malaysia’s Islamic banking industry have yet to translate down to its banking consumers…
Boasting a 20 per cent market share, which the country’s Central Bank wants to double within the next five years, its Islamic banks are spoiled with a supportive Government, advanced Islamic capital market and a ready-made consumer market from the country’s majority-Muslim population. Malaysia’s population, however, seem a bit nonplussed by the concept. (source)

MALAYSIA - OPINION - Islamic finance must finance its diversification

www.btimes.com.my - Islamic finance is usually described as an infant market with domestic focus and supported by the government, hence, much like a baby reliant upon it parents in a home environment of nutrition, nurturing, and natural growth.

“To be competitive in the new world order, one has to think like an immigrant, create like an artisan, work like a start-up and provide service like a waitress, and continuously create a unique value add.” Thomas Friedman, Foreign Affairs Correspondent of the NY Times.

IN a “hyper-connected world, the age of ‘average’ is officially over”. Is Islamic finance hearing and, more importantly, listening?

The baby-cum-toddler is eventually taken off the bottle and consumes “people food”. Islamic finance, unfortunately, is still suckling on the bottle called “real estate” and the natural growth-cum-diversification is a bottleneck risk that needs to be addressed. (source)

INDONESIA - OPINION - Money Wise: Is Your Credit Card a Friend Or a Foe?

www.thejakartaglobe.com - Collin Bloodworth - Credit card growth has exploded in Indonesia over recent years as a rising middle class embraces its newfound affluence.

Credit cards reduce the amount of cash people need to carry and make it easier to shop online and book flights or hotels. They also enable people to purchase items weeks before having the cash to pay for them.

And the benefits do not stop there.(source)

WORLD - FINANCE - Islamic repo agreements struggle for traction

www.reuters.com - May 10 (Reuters) - Islamic repurchase agreements may struggle to gain wide acceptance as a tool for financial institutions because the industry lacks clear rules governing their use, participants at a major industry conference told Reuters.
Liquidity management products such as Islamic repos were one of the main themes at the annual meeting of the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) in Manama this week.  (source)

WORLD - OPINION - Where are the 'sisters in Islamic finance'?

www.btimes.com.my - The retirement of Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar as chairman of the Securities Commission was a defining moment on the need to establish a 'bench' strength for women in Islamic finance. 
WHERE are the "sisters in Islamic finance", if it is about inclusion?

The retirement of Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar as chairman of the Securities Commission (SC) was a defining moment on the need to establish a 'bench' strength for women in Islamic finance.

A company, much like a phenomenon, is as strong as its weakest link. Today in Islamic finance, the lack of enough women on the executive floor or the corner office is a human asset weak link. (source)

WORLD - OPINION - Mega bank, stock exchanges and trading platforms

www.btimes.com.my - ISSUES TO CONSIDER: An open letter to Islamic Development Bank president Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali
DEAR Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, president, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group;

Asalaam Alaikum,

The Islamic finance world welcomes your comments on the Mega Islamic Bank with much excitement and great sense of anticipation.

“…The ‘Mega Islamic Bank’ comes as an initiative of the Islamic Development Bank in its efforts to address the dearth of senior financiers, the absence of the Islamic tools of stock exchange and the absence of market liquidity between Islamic banks.”

Dr Ali, the Islamic mega bank, working with IDB and industry stakeholders, needs to also include stock exchanges and trading platforms, both Islamic and OIC, as part of the conversation. (source)

INDONESIA - OPINION - Awaiting the birth of a new state-owned Islamic Bank

www.bisnis.com - Bambang Riyanto Rustam - Islamic banking per the latest statistics released by Bank Indonesia show that Islamic banking industry in terms of per plant assets, third party funds (DPK), and financing had risen rapidly. But my dear pa sar share of Islamic banking to be yet until the end of 2011 at 5%.In fact, the Islamic banking industry has been developed for about two decades (1992-2012) in Indonesia.
 In terms of asset growth, based on sharia banking statistics shows that the performance of Islamic banking for 5 years (2007 2011) grew an average of 41% per year.
 Last year, growth in assets, deposits and financing of Islamic banks (BUS) and Islamic business units (UUS) also showed remarkable growth. (source)

MALAYSIA - OPINION - Competitive advantage of KL: Are we optimising our soft assets?

www.malaysia-chronicle.com - Many things have been said about making Kuala Lumpur a world class city. From the ETP to Kuala Lumpur’s Structure Plan, a lot has been said about the psychical aspect of Kuala Lumpur and making it a leading Metropolis.

The questions remain, “What will make people come to Kuala Lumpur, What will make it stand out internationally and What can take Kuala Lumpur beyond the competitive cities in the region ie Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok?” (source)

BRUNEI - OPINION - 'Brunei must find niche in Islamic capital markets'

www.bt.com.bh - BRUNEI'S Islamic finance sector must find a niche in Islamic capital markets and reposition itself to find new opportunities in order to catch up with other industry players in the region, an expert said.

Sri Anne Masri, managing director of Pro Ethica Training and Research, said more building blocks are needed in the country to pave a way for the creation of more Islamic products and services such as equity funds, wealth management, and murabahah. (source)

WORLD - OPINION - SAMI + 3 — Islamic world’s BRICS

ww.btimes.com.my - IDEAL CONFIGURATION: Other Muslim countries can be added easily, without having to change the name
“We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history.” Sonia Johnson

THE recent BRICS summit in New Delhi, India, should be a wake-up call for the Muslim world’s own proposed BRICS, called SAMI: Saudi, Ankara, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The BRIC story, Brazil Russia, India and China, started in 2001 by a Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill, “Building Better Global Economics BRICs”. In late 2010, an “S” was added for South Africa. These are growth markets with increasing political clout, and combining for nearly 50 per cent of the world’s population, US$14 trillion (RM42 trillion) GDP, and excess of US$4 trillion (RM12 trillion) foreign reserves (source: Wikipedia).  (source)

SINGAPORE - OPINION - Loss-sharing is not sine qua non for Islamic finance

www.zawya.com - There remains a misconception amongst the masses that Islamic finance is essentially a system that shares the profit or the loss. In fact this is not the reality. Islamic finance involves different modes, out of which a few are profit sharing and/or profit and loss sharing. There are many other modes, where the question of sharing profit or bearing loss does not arise.

Even these, however, are rich in their respective virtues. Each of the modes of Islamic finance has got its own distinct characteristics in respect of modus operandi and principles. So whenever there is a contract (between two or more parties) under Islamic finance, none can insist on any party sharing profit or bearing loss unless the specific mode itself qualifies for such a provision. It is the mode of agreement that determines whether the contract can stipulate the provision of profit and loss sharing or not. (source)

WORLD - OPINION - Sound bites in Islamic finance

www.btimes.com.my - “Interest equals disinterest because the lender has nothing to do with the borrower and his business. Islamic finance aims at creating an economy in which one financial dollar equals one real economy dollar.” Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, syariah scholar
TODAY’S attention span can be described by a seven letter word “TWITTER”. The amount of seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour and hours in a day is the same as far as one can remember, yet we seem to be busier than ever in an information overload world.

It seems the typical time for processing, analysing and drawing conclusions of, say, news headlines is confined to the first few paragraphs of a story and we must act fast in scrolling headlines in real time. (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Here's How to Defeat Islamic Bank Indonesia Malaysia

WWW.REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA --- Assets of Islamic banks can not beat the ground water assets of Islamic banks in Malaysia. However, Indonesia has the resources to grow the homeland of Islamic banks to surpass Malaysia. These resources come from the agricultural sector and the size of the population in the country.

Resource base (resource base) is not owned by Indonesia Malaysia. According to the Managing Director of Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), Yuslam Fauzi, resource utilization is likely to make the defeat of Islamic banks homeland Malaysia. "A company or country can move forward in sustainable (continuous) if it could use a good resource base," he said in a monthly discussion of the Economic Community of Sharia, Friday (2/3) evening. (source)

INDONESIA - OPINION - Islamic economics is not identical with the Financial Industry

www.pkesinteraktif. com - Jakarta (29/2) - This view of Islamic economics has become narrower. Islamic economics was limited as the business economy. This eventually formed the view that Islam is identical to the industrial economy especially the financial industry.

Islamic economists Dawan Rahardjo said the narrowness of views on Islamic economics can be proved from a variety of things. He cited the economic interest in the western world will not because of Islam but because of prudential substances, applicable, and profitable, it is certainly closely related industries.

"Europeans are interested in Islam because the mode of capitalist economy rather than the other," he said in a national workshop "Architecture of Islamic Economic Education" in Jakarta, Tuesday (28/2). (source)

MALAYSIA - OPINION - Media and public relations — the missing link in Islamic finance

www.btimes.com.my - NEED FOR CONTROL ROOM: The industry has alphabet bodies that deal with various issues but when it comes to public relations and marketing, there seems to be a gaping hole that is getting larger
IS THERE a media and public relations (PR) "control room" for Islamic finance that educates, creates awareness, undertakes damage control, etc, so that the industry is "conventionally efficient" media-savvy?

Some recent headlines, by-lined articles, blogs and press releases from Islamic finance provide the answer:

* Is Islamic Finance a Failure? Reuters (Guest Columnist)

* KFH: Banking Products that Cement Value of Savings in Society, press release

* Islamic Banks Misleading: Clients Emirates 24/7 (Dubai, UAE)

* Reporters Notebook: The Ethical Aspects of Islamic Banks, www.greenprophet.com  (source)

WORLD - OPINION - Surveying the industry landscape (Rushdi Siddiqui)

New Year Reflection: This survey highlights the Islamic finance industry's achievement and challenges, future direction, sukuk issuance and halal sector, among others
‘An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.’ - Bill Vaughn

ISLAMIC finance is staying up for new year for ... The survey format is straight forward, 16 questions with multiple answers.

1. What are the objectives of Islamic finance (IF) and have they been met since its birth in early 1970s?  (source)

WORLD - GENERAL - ‘Islamic finance Industry too Parochial and insular’

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)

INDONESIA - BANKING - 2 It takes the Acceleration of Islamic Banking

Tangerang (1 / 12) - In developing Islamic banking in this country need to do acceleration. It was felt would give something positive for the development of Islamic banking.

According to the Chairman Indonesia Sharia Bank Association (ASBISINDO), A Riawan Amin at least there are 2 things to consider in the acceleration of Islamic banking. First, the Syariah Commercial Bank (BUS) and Sharia (UUS) must use the parent bank's infrastructure.

"So do not spend money or capital to build its own ATMs, branches themselves and others. It's expensive, we were little," he said on the sidelines of the Seminar and Conference 2012 Regional Employment Indonesia Sharia Bank Association (ASBISINDO) in Tangerang, Thursday (1 / 12).  (source)