Kenya’s first fully fledged Islamic bank, First Community Bank Ltd. (FCB) has stepped up its recruitment of key personnel with the objective of commencing operations in the next few months.
The bank, which has links to Kuwaiti investors is seeking to recruit senior personnel to head its risk management, operations, treasury, corporate and retail banking arms as it opens branch networks through out the region.
The central bank governor has hinted that a guideline on Islamic banking is being considered in Bangladesh.
“Time has come to formulate an Islamic banking guideline,” Salehuddin Ahmed told the launching ceremony of Islamic banking brand by Standard Chartered Bank in Dhaka.
He urged the Islamic thinkers, economists and bankers to come forward to outline such a guideline.
Standard Chartered Bank has launched its new Islamic banking brand, Saadiq, offering a range of Shariah-compliant financial solutions.
The Bahrain-based Islamic banking conglomerate, Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG), said Saturday that it had received Syrian approval to establish a subsidiary bank with a capital of 100 million dollars.
The bank, which will be known as Al Baraka Bank-Syria, will provide full Islamic banking products and services for both private individuals and companies through a network of branches in Syria's main cities.
Fortitude Capital Sdn Bhd, a fund manager, is teaming up with Kuwait's Islamic investment group Al-Aqeelah to set up a Takaful company in Syria.
The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding here yesterday towards forming the joint venture in that country by early next year.
It will be Al-Aqeelah’s first Takaful operations. Al-Aqeelah also announced the appointment of Fortitude Capital chairman and Malaysia-Syria business council chairman as its representative in Asia.
Islamic banking and finance is likely to continue growing in the Asia Pacific region, but the real test of its sustainability will be how the system reacts to a major financial crisis, a report said Thursday.
The industry is set to develop its own identity separate from conventional banking as new Islamic financial products are rolled out, said the report by Financial Insights, a company under market research and analysis firm International Data Corp (IDC).
Islamic banking has now become part of the country's mainstream financial system and has the potential to generate the country's economic growth, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In a written reply to Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri (BN-Kudat) in the Dewan Rakyat, the prime minister said Islamic banking has cornered 12.2% of the domestic financial market with assets totalling RM133 billion. In the Takaful sector, it has cornered 6.1% of the market with assets worth RM6.9 billion.
The international Centre for education in Islamic Finance or INCEIF and the Tadhamon international Islamic Bank co-organized a Forum entitled The Islamic Financial Services industry: The Next Big Wave. The Forum, held at the Movenpick Hotel, was well attended by about 100 guests comprising staff of the Central Bank of Yemen, Islamic and conventional banks, insurance companies, scholars and members from the University fraternity in Sana’a.
Qatar Islamic Bank is planning the first securitisation by a bank in the Middle East.
Qatar’s largest Islamic bank and the Gulf’s fourth largest Islamic lender by market value has hired Kuwait-based Islamic investment bank Rasameel Structured Finance Company and an international investment bank, which it did not name, to advise on the deal.
QIB’s securitisation aims to serve the bank’s overseas expansion plans.
Bahrain-based Islamic insurance provider Solidarity has opened a customer service centre in the newly-opened KFH Automall.
The centre will offer family and general takaful or Islamic insurance products.
The customer service centre is part of Solidarity's expansion strategy within Bahrain, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Sakana Holistic Housing Solutions BSC, an Islamic financial institution based in Bahrain has completed implementation of FLEXCUBE for Islamic Banking, for its mortgage financing operations.
Sakana is the fifth financial institution in the Middle East to use the universal IT banking solution for Islamic financing from i-flex Solutions Ltd.
