ICIF News

NEW DELHI : Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is looking at investing USD 100 billion in India in areas of petrochemicals, infrastructure and mining among others, considering the country's growth potential. Saudi Ambassador Dr Saud bin Mohammed Al Sati has said India is an attractive investment destination for Saudi Arabia and it is eyeing long-term partnerships with New Delhi in key sectors such as oil, gas and mining. "Saudi Arabia is looking at making investments in India potentially worth USD 100 billion in the areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining," Al Sati told PTI in an interview. He said Saudi Arabia's biggest oil giant Aramco's proposed partnership with Reliance Industries Ltd reflected the strategic ...

By Ashwini Shrivastava Singapore, Oct 28 (PTI) Indian and foreign banks should exploit Islamic banking''s untapped potential to ensure the financial inclusion of “unbanked” populations excluded by the existing financial system, several experts have said. Islamic banking is a finance system based on the principles of not charging interest, which is prohibited under Islam. “Research shows that the Islamic finance sector continues to grow and evolve in size and complexity, with Islamic banking offered in more than 60 countries worldwide. It is an excellent opportunity for Indian/foreign banks to expand their footprint in India by venturing into this largely untapped sector,” said Islamic banking expert Hazik Mohamed. He said Shariah instruments like bonds (more...

  The Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) Pravasi Chitty, the savings scheme for expats from the state, is now Shariah-compliant, an Indian minister said in Abu Dhabi. Kerala's Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said the chit fund scheme is now available with an additional 'halal' option and some added features on www.pravasi.ksfe.com. "There will be no auction or implicit interest rate. Each chit fund will have just 12 to 20 subscribers. Every month the full amount will be given to a subscriber, who will be selected after a discussion to ascertain the neediest person. If they can't reach an agreement then a draw will be held," Isaac told Khaleej Times during an exclusive chat at Kerala Social Centre in Abu Dhabi. There are some 'unique' savings scheme strategies introd...

To Check Farm Suicides, India Will Have To Start Interest-Free Banking: Bangladesh Top Banker India will have to start interest-free banking system in order to check the growing number of farm suicides, said a top banker of Bangladesh here on Friday. Md Abdul Awwal Sarker, General Manager, Research Department, Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, also said there are no such farm suicides in his country. He also said that farmers can be saved by advance buying of their products with proper pricing. While speaking on “Islamic Banking in Bangladesh” at an event hosted by the Indian Centre for Islamic Finance, Mr. Sarker highlighted the achievements of Islamic Banks in Bangladesh. Out of 60 banks run by the Bangladesh Bank, counterpart of Reserve Bank of Indi...

When the Bengaluru-based IMA Group of Companies wound up its operations, it not only left thousands of investors in the lurch but also raised questions on political patronage to Ponzi schemes that are being run in the name of Islamic banking. Imran Gowhar and K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj report on the scam On a hot day in June, shortly after Eid, software engineer Naveed Ahmed found himself standing next to homemaker Nazim Begum and electrician Abbas Ali in a serpentine queue. In the queue were thousands of people — homemakers, salaried white-collared workers, businessmen and hawkers — who had lined up in front of Bengaluru’s Commercial Street Police Station, all victims of an investment fraud allegedly perpetrated by the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Group of Companies and its fo...

  Khurshid Ahmad Najmi ( Legal Advisor , ICIF , Partner -Link Legal India Law Service, Former Legal Advisor Reserve Bank of India) The biggest problem with the term ‘Islamic bank’ is that it carries the word ‘Islam.’ It is almost like the elephant in the poem we read in school, of six blind men trying to describe it based on the various parts they touched. Instead, let’s look at the idea by calling it ‘interest-free banking’. As intermediaries of the financial system, conventional banks accept deposits and lend money on the basis of a predetermined rate of interest. Under a non-interest-based system, any payment or acceptance of interest is prohibited. The system operates on the basis that t...

Fatima Farooqi (not her real name) mortgaged her house in Mumbai to borrow and invest 500,000 Indian rupees ($7,180) into a scheme run by Heera Gold last year. She was thrilled at the prospect of paying her daughter’s college fees with the 15,000 rupees monthly return she was promised from this ‘halal’ investment. Today, the promoter of the Ponzi scheme, Nowhera Shaikh, is in jail pending trial after dozens of cases of cheating and fraud were filed against her for payment default. And Fatima has little hope of getting her money back. A homemaker and mother of two, Fatima said she first invested 200,000 rupees in 2016 and was receiving 6,600 rupees every month into her account as a profit for almost a year. “They said I will continue to earn that profit every mont...

  by   Namira Samir and Imad el Fadili The World Financial Review   A recent study by Sumner (2012) suggested that approximately 960 million people from 1.3 billion poor people in the world live in Middle-Income countries. This evidence is being referred to as the “new bottom billion”. Somehow startling that the extreme poor no longer live in the world’s poorest countries, it is even more alarming to realise that roughly one-fourth of the world’s Muslims live in these less-developed countries. Muslims are often backed by its obligatory tax required of Muslims which is also known as zakat. However, the rising criticism over the negligence of zakat on resolving poverty is seemingly becoming more intense than ever. This article argues that impr...

Doha: Qatar is working on an ambitious initiative with Malaysia and Turkey to serve the $2 trillion global Islamic finance market by establishing hubs in the three countries using common platforms and technology. “We have a vision to cover the entire globe’s Islamic financial transactions between three financial centers: Doha, Istanbul and Malaysia,” said Yousef Mohamed Al Jaida, CEO of the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Authority in a group interview on the sidelines of the recently-concluded annual Doha Forum.  “This requires international platforms and technology which we believe Qatar Financial Centre has”, Nikkei Asian Review quoted Al Jaida as saying in its report. The story, tweeted by Qatar’s Ministry of Finance yesterday said, under t...

Doha: Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Company (QGIRC), one of the leading insurance service providers in the country, held a ceremony honouring the Acting CFO, Deepa Chandrashekar, after receiving a doctorate degree in Islamic Finance, as part of the company’s plan to boost employee motivation and morale, as well as the company’s keenness to raise the level of its employees in the knowledge ladder. Sheikh Nasser bin Ali bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman and Managing Director of QGIRC, said that the day was dedicated to celebrating and appreciating the achievement of colleague Deepa Chandrashekar, and the role of all the distinguished people in the company. Sheikh Nasser said: “They are the driving force to reach the maximum possible success. We are pleased to honour o...

  Gas-rich Gulf state aims to escape blockade by diversifying economy MICHAEL STOTT, Nikkei Asian Review managing editor DOHA -- Qatar is planning an ambitious new initiative with Malaysia and Turkey to serve the $2 trillion global Islamic finance market from hubs in the three countries using common platforms and technology, as part of efforts by the Gulf emirate to overcome a blockade imposed by its neighbors and diversify its economy away from oil and gas. "We have a vision to cover the entire globe’s Islamic financial transactions between three financial centers: Doha, Istanbul and Malaysia," said Yousef Mohamed Al Jaida, CEO of the Qatar Financial Centre in a group interview on the sidelines of the annual Doha Forum. "This requires international pla...

Twelve listed Saudi banks reached a 17.86 billion riyal (Dh17.5bn) settlement with the kingdom’s tax authority over the payment of religious tax called Zakat. Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest bank by assets, will pay the highest amount of 5.4bn riyals, followed by Riyad Bank with 2.96bn riyals and Samba Financial Group with 2.3bn riyals, the lenders said in separate statements to the Saudi stock exchange, where their shares are listed. Alinma bank said it did not pay any settlement and it would record “a credit balance", with the General Authority of Zakat and Tax. All banks said the settlements, reflected in their shareholder’s equity, cover a number of previous years that will include the fiscal year of 2018 and the lenders will publish further...

India is on track to overtake the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2018, according to data and forecasts from the IMF. Soon it will trail only Germany and the ‘big three’ – the US, China and Japan. However, the Indian banking system is gasping for breath with high non-performing assets and growth plummeting by 2% after the twin blows of demonetization and the introduction of the single Goods and Services Tax (GST) throughout the country. H ABDUR RAQEEB writes.   Demonetization of large denomination currency notes in November 2016 invalidated 86% of the cash in circulation in an economy where more than 90% of transactions were cash based and the countrywide introduction of GST created short-term uncertainty. In this scenario, there is little p...

Islamic Development Bank exploring joint opportunities with other multilateral development banks to invest in India’s infrastructure sector Tue, Jun 26 2018 Utpal Bhaskar Mumbai: Islamic Development Bank Group, one of the largest lenders to Muslim countries, is interested in exploring joint opportunities with other multilateral development banks to invest in India’s infrastructure sector, said Islamic Development Bank president Bandar M.H. Hajjar. The development is significant given India’s infrastructure requirements and the need to access capital at competitive rates. Infrastructure development has been one of the focus areas of the Narendra Modi government. Starting with an allocation of around ₹1.81 trillion in 2014-15, expenditure towards infrastructure re...

      Trying to bring Islamic banking to India   Though Muslims are a minority in India and are generally less affluent than Hindus, in sheer numbers they make India the second largest Muslim nation in the world. Cumulatively, their investment power is tremendous and represents an untapped resource for Islamic banks. M D Nalapat reports in the Pakistan Observer that financial entities in the USA and Europe have exerted their influence to prevent the development of Islamic banking in India, fearing the outflow to India of the $1.16 trillion (!) in funds that are parked in Western Islamic banking institution. Is this true? I don’t know. But the article makes for very interesting reading. He also points out that India has strong ties with the Arabian Gulf,...

  Criminal for our education sector to ignore it any longer Dr Mehboob Makhdoomi Srinagar | Posted : Jun 3 2018 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has finally incorporated Islamic Finance into its financial sector assessments beginning January 1, 2019, calling Islamic Finance a growing sector. Under a proposal by the IMF’s executive board, the guidance issued by Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) would be incorporated into IMF assessments to address the regulation and supervision of Islamic banks. What this entails is that the fund that used to be specific for traditional banking, now accepts Islamic finance principles, making it a globally-accepted parallel system to the current Interest-based financial system. As per Thomson Reuters’...

Islamic finance pioneers and like-minded community leaders in India have come together to introduce an alternative product to formal takaful, which doesn’t exist in the country. A not-for-profit health assurance scheme, called Uplift Mutuals Biradaree, started in April this year at two of Mumbai’s Muslim-majority localities, Kurla and Malad. The scheme works on the model of mutual assurance, with certain features maintaining the values of Shariah-compliant finance. “The mutual health assurance model by design works on the principles of takaful in which people contribute an agreed amount to a common pool to support each other and share risk,” Dr. Shariq Nisar, an Islamic finance academic and professional who helped develop the scheme, told Salaam Gateway. Th...

By HABEEB RAHMAN CP The International Zakat Conference, organised by Baithuzzakath Kerala, concludes in Cochin with the new hope for the effective zakat management in the country. More than 250 high-profile delegates from various parts of the country and other nations participated in the conference. The inaugural function of the conference held at Ernakulam Town Hall with remarkable participation. The conference comprised a public conference, four plenary sessions, nine parallel sessions, and three panel discussions in various subjects related to strengthen the new step in the zakat management and promotion. The conference reviewed the possibility of poverty eradication, uplifting the backward classes and needy people in the country through effective zakat management models. Zakat Practi...