Islamic Finance Bulletin Issue 25, July 2017
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Islamic Finance Bulletin Issue 25, July 2017 ISLAMIC FINANCE BULLETIN Issue 25, July 2017 Value MoM QoQ YoY Islamic Finance to 8/7/17 7/7/17 5/7/17 8/7/16 Debut Soon in 2 Cambodia Equity Dow Jones Islamic Index 3358.43 3.16% 4.32% 13.00% Dow Jones Global Index 370.94 3.41% 4.53% 15.58% Pakistan Sets Rules MSCI Islamic Index 1251.21 2.75% 2.86% 8.97% for Banks Wanting 2 MSCI World Index 1967.77 2.85% 3.74% 14.63% to be Fully Sharia Compliant MSCI Emerging Market Index 1067.26 6.46% 9.10% 20.52% Fixed Income LIBOR 6 Month 1.4494 -0.016 0.017 0.289 Malaysia is Reviv- Murabaha USD 6 Month 1.4747 0.043 0.138 0.487 ing Widely Un- 3 Dow Jones Sukuk Index 103.15 0.69% 0.45% -0.87% tapped Waqf Seg- ment of Finance Bloomberg Emerging Market Bond Index 166.22 2.00% 2.06% 5.29% Insurance Bloomberg Takaful Index 136.76 -0.36% -1.78% 2.33% Malaysia's Saturna, IDB Private Arm 3 Launch Islamic Sustainable Fund Sukuk Plagued by 4 Complexity Saudi Arabia Raises $4.53bln in First 4 Domestic Sukuk Tranche Malaysia’s First Green Sukuk Un- der Security Com- mission’s Sustaina- 5 ble Responsible Investment Sukuk Framework BEWG Issues Sukuk Wakalah; First-Ever by Chi- 5 nese-Owned Com- pany Upcoming Events 6 Glossary 7 Islamic Finance Bulletin Issue 25, July 2017 Islamic Finance to Debut Soon in Cambodia Islamic finance, which upholds Sharia prin- Osman Hassan, secretary of state at the Min- cipals and is in line with the ethical values of istry of Labor and Vocational Training and Islam will make its debut soon in Cambo- president of Cambodian Muslim Develop- dia. ment Foundation, said Muslims in the coun- According to the World Islamic Economic try were reluctant to try to access the king- Forum (WIEF), two Malaysia-based Islamic dom’s financial services as paying interest is financial institutions – Amanah Ikhtiar Ma- not allowed under Islamic law. laysia and Yapeim – are expected to open “It becomes a problem if Muslim business- their first branches by the end of the year men want to expand their businesses and feel and 2018 respectively. that they cannot borrow money from the “Promoting Islamic finance will build bridg- banks or microfinance institutions,” said Mr Osman. Photo Credit: khmertimeskh.com es in the microfinance world and also bene- fit Muslim people in Cambodia,” said Tan “As a matter of faith, a Muslim cannot lend Sri Dr Wan Zahid Bin Noordin, chairman money to, or receive money from, someone of the WIEF Education Trust, at a work- and expect to benefit. Interest [known as riba] shop on financial inclusion yesterday. is not allowed. “Sharia compliant Islamic banking encour- “To make money from money is forbidden – ages profit and loss sharing and assets-based wealth can only be generated through legiti- investments, promoting financial inclusion mate trade and investment in assets.” for all,” added Mr Wan Zahid. Source: Khmer Times Pakistan Sets Rules for Banks Wanting to be Fully Sharia Compliant Pakistan's central bank has issued guidelines Islamic banking license. covering how banks that want to be fully- Converting back to conventional banking fledged sharia compliant can achieve that status, operations will not be allowed, the circular setting a three-year time frame for applicants to said. complete the process. Such conversions are rare in Islamic finance The rules aim to accelerate the growth of Islam- but are seen as a way to increase the scale of ic banking in the Muslim-majority country. The Islamic banking and widen its reach into un- sector enjoys double-digit growth but lags con- der-served rural areas. ventional banks in terms of size and profitabil- ity. Islamic banking in Pakistan, the second most populous Muslim-majority nation after Indo- Photo Credit: zawya.com Islamic banks follows religious principles such nesia, currently includes five full-fledged Is- as bans on interest and pure monetary specula- lamic banks and 16 conventional banks of- tion, ruling out the use of interest-based finan- fering Islamic financial products. cial instruments such as bonds and treasury bills. As of March, they held assets worth 1.9 tril- lion rupees ($17.9 billion), a 16 percent in- Eligible applicants must have existing Islamic crease from a year earlier and 11.7 percent of finance operations and the conversion process total banking assets. must start within six months of approval, the central bank said in a circular. However, their capitalisation and profitabil- ity ratios remain below the industry average After the conversion of conventional branches, in Pakistan. the applicant can then apply for a full-fledged Source: Zawya 2 Islamic Finance Bulletin Issue 25, July 2017 Malaysia is Reviving Widely Untapped Waqf Segment of Finance In a world’s first, Malaysia saw the initial tutional investors and intends to use the pro- public offering (IPO) of waqf shares ceeds to upgrade regional transport infrastruc- through a company that manages endowed ture in the state’s capital of Johor Bahru. land in the country’s southernmost state of Johor. The step is widely seen as an inno- The funds raised from the Shariah-compliant vative strategy in Islamic finance for effec- waqf IPO of the “Larkin Sentral Waqaf Proper- tive development of waqf properties in or- ties Fund” will be used to renovate and upgrade der to maximise benefits for the communi- the main and largest public transport terminal ty. in Johor Bahru, Larkin Sentral, and its adjacent market, and for the acquisition of land for the Waqf, under Islamic law, is a charitable en- construction of a multi-storey carpark by 2019. dowment which involves donating a build- Photo Credit: gulf-times.com ing, plot of land or other tangible assets for Investors in the waqf shares will be eligible for religious or charitable purposes with no tax deduction of up to 7% in case they are indi- intention of reclaiming the assets. The do- viduals and 10% in case they are companies or nated assets are normally held by a charita- other institutional shareholders, namely retire- ble trust in a system that Western law de- ment funds, cooperatives, foundations or work- fines as usufruct. ers’ pension funds. The dividend from the waqf shares is aimed at helping small and low-income In this case, Waqaf An-Nur Corp, a com- vendors and single-mother groups by reducing pany set up by Johor Corp, a government- rental rates for the market’s shop lots to a rea- linked entity seeking to improve economic sonable level. and societal development in the state, is offering shares worth around $20mn Source: Gulf Times backed by endowed land to retail and insti- Malaysia's Saturna, IDB Private Arm Launch Islamic Sustainable Fund Malaysia-based investment firm Saturna Monem Salam, president of Saturna and the Sdn Bhdand the private sector arm of fund's portfolio manager, said it will invest in the Islamic Development Bank launched global equities screened for sharia-compliance, a fund they say combines Islamic and sus- while integrating a proprietary ESG rating sys- tainable investment principles. tem. The dual investment mandate for the He said the initial focus is distributing the fund new ICD Global Sustainable in Malaysia, but through the ASEAN fund Fund highlights a trend among Islamic passport - a regional agreement on cross- financial firms, which are gradually em- border investment fund marketing - the goal is bracing the concept of socially responsi- to also tap Singapore and later Thailand. ble investing. Growth in Islamic asset management may have Islamic funds have predominantly fol- slowed in some areas, but the new fund could lowed passive filters that exclude sectors help tap into a wider audience in the responsi- such as alcohol and gambling, but envi- ble investment sector, said Salam. Photo Credit: iifin.net ronmental, social and governance (ESG) "Over the next few years, we hope the fund criteria could see them take a more proac- can reach $100 million in size, and we would tive investment approach. like that to be majority sourced outside of Ma- The fund has $36 million in seed capital, laysia," the manager said. with around $30 million coming from an ICD will help distribute the fund in markets unidentified Malaysian institutional inves- including the Middle East, Salam said. tor. The rest is split between Saturna and Saturna is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S.- the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for based Saturna Capital Corporation, which has the Development of the Private Sector $3.3 billion in assets under management. (ICD). Source: Zawya 3 Islamic Finance Bulletin Issue 25, July 2017 Sukuk Plagued by Complexity Low oil prices have resulted in a growing The snub of sukuk puts a flourescent question interest in Islamic securities, or sukuk. In mark over its viability as a global financial the first half of this year, global sukuk is- instrument. Much of the blame was attributed suance reached US$48 bil, a 37.7% year- to the complexity involved in sukuk issuance. on-year increase, according to data pro- Speaking to The Financial Times, Mohamed vided by S&P Global. Damak, senior director and global head of In a recent article critiquing the viability of Islamic finance at S&P Global Ratings notes sukuk as an asset class, The Financial that there is a lack of standardised legal docu- Times notes that sukuk is only recently mentation in the issuance process, while the experiencing this spike in interest.