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Global issuance of sukuk fell 56 percent year-on-year to $14.9 billion in 2008, according to Standard & Poor's, as the market was caught up in the global liquidity freeze but also due to a debate on whether the majority of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, were sharia-compliant.

Prominent scholar Sheikh Muhammad Tariq Usmani said in late 2007 that most Islamic bonds were not compliant with sharia as their guarantee to pay out bondholders at maturity contradicts the principle of sharing risk and returns.

Peter Hodgins, a lawyer specialising in Islamic insurance at law firm Clyde & Co said Islamic insurance, or takaful, products could help reconcile the need for sukuk to comply with these requirements and investors' need to insure against risks.

"Takaful can be a solution to help out the sukuk market."

Takaful firms could provide insurance for sukuk investors that takes over notional annual payments to bondholders if they fall below an agreed amount, he said, adding that there were discussions in the industry on such a product.

In Islamic insurance, customers contribute to a pool of funds which is used to indemnify participants who suffer a loss, while in conventional insurance the insurer takes on the risk for a premium.

"As the sukuk market evolves, there could be room for such a product," said Nick Frei, chief executive of Bahrain-based Islamic insurer t'azur.

But he said pricing these products could be a challenge for takaful companies as the risk of sukuk was difficult to assess.

It has long been hard for takaful -- or sharia-compliant -- insurers to sell such products, because of the lack of long-term Islamic bonds with which to match pension liabilities, Abdul Rahman Tolefat told Reuters on Wednesday.

The German insurer's unit had lobbied banks to issue long term debt and unnamed banks had now issued 25-year to 30-year sukuk, Tolefat said at a conference.

"This is really a promising industry, especially in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) -- people are looking for private pensions because state pension are not high enough," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

Allianz was one of the first Western insurance companies to venture into takaful, in which members contribute to a pool of funds which is used to indemnify participants who suffer a loss, much in the same way as with a mutual insurer.

Allianz Takaful already has a pension product which pays out over a pre-agreed number of years, but annuities that guarantee income until death are still an untapped market.

Allianz Takaful is also lobbying for more access to short- to medium term debt and is asking the Bahraini Central Bank to earmark part of any sukuk issuance to takaful companies, who don't have the clout to compete with large banks.

Earlier this year, the Bahraini Government issued a $750 million sukuk and said last month it will issue a further $530 million of sukuk in local currency.

Takaful companies could still buy these sovereign sukuk on the secondary market but they tend to be too expensive, he told the conference delegates.

Among its projects, Allianz is also pursuing a partnership by the end of the third quarter with a network of distributors. Tolefat declined to say who they are.

--Reuters

The new scheme addresses the financial needs of customers looking for sharia'h compliant long term savings or investment plans, such as child education fees planning and retirement planning, with takaful benefits. Customers have the choice to build up their savings by either contributing on a regular basis or as a lumpsum amount, which then gets invested into some of the world's best performing Sharia'h compliant funds.

The programme also provides Takaful benefits, ensuring that savings and investments goals are achieved, even in the event of loss of life of the customer. Customers can choose to protect 60% or 100% of their intention. The product is completely Sharia'h compliant and is approved by the Shariah Board, headed by Sheikh Abdalla Ben Suliman Al-Manei, Chairman of the Shariah Board of Badr Al Islami.

DUBAI: A Saudi Arabian Islamic finance body aims to set up a committee of senior Islamic scholars in the kingdom by 2010 to help standardise Islamic banking edicts in the Gulf oil producer, an official said yesterday.

The Islamic International Foundation for Economics & Finance is in the early talks with Sharia scholars and hoped to “institutionalise” Islamic rulings within a year, said Yousef Abdullah al-Zamil, the foundation’s assitant secretary general.
“The problem is that in Saudi Arabia there is not a system in place for banks, the banks have different views and there is not even a division for Islamic finance at the central bank,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, is home to Al-Rajhi Bank, the Gulf region’s biggest bank complying with Islamic law, or Shariah.
Islamic law bans usury, usually understood to cover all forms of lending at fixed interest, and imposes restrictions on various other forms of lending.
A select group of Islamic scholars oversee the fast-growing niche market, but a lack of standardisation on what financial contracts are acceptable is one of the biggest complaints among bankers in the $1tn industry.
Islamic law is open to diverse interpretations, resulting in some financing structures that are gaining widespread approval. For instance, Islamic bonds, the industry’s hottest product, came under the spotlight last year after a top standards body said almost all do not comply with Islamic law.

Reuters

Hijazi confirmed that Islamic bond issues fell by more than 50% in 2008 compared to 2007. He pointed out that the value of bonds issued in 2008 was just over 15 billion dollars, while in 2007 it amounted to more than 32 billion dollars.

“Factors behind the bond issue decline were based on the global financial crisis and the lack of investor confidence in the financial markets,” Hijazi said. He added that new standards by accounting and auditing bodies of Islamic financial institutions also raised doubts on the legality of some Islamic bonds.

As the region’s first and premier 24-hour live Arabic Business TV channel, CNBC Arabiya recently re-launched to include 12 new programmes. Along with a new programming schedule, the CNBC Arabiya re-launch reveals a brand new studio layout with more capacity for live links.

Menafn

By Prof. Rodney Wilson

Professor-Durham University

The collapse of leading Wall Street institutions, notably Lehman Brothers, and the subsequent global financial crisis and economic recession, are encouraging economists world-wide to consider alternative financial solutions.

Attention has been focused on Islamic banking and finance as an alternative model. What lessons can be learnt, and how resilient have Islamic banks been during the current crisis?

Islamic Banking Principles And Sub-prime Lending

The religious teaching underpinning Islamic finance is concerned with justice in financial contracts to ensure that none of the parties is being exploited.

Those on lower incomes, with poorer prospects of finding new employment in the event of redundancy, were less likely to be able to service their interest payments.

Islamic housing finance involves risk sharing between the bank and the client, rather than transferring all the risk to the latter.

Under the most commonly used diminishing musharaka (partnership) contract, the bank and the client form a partnership, with the bank providing up to 90 percent of the purchase price, and the client at least 10 percent.

Over a period of usually 10 to 25 years, the client buys out the ownership share of the bank which makes its profit from the rent paid by the client for the share the bank owns.

In the event of a rental or repayments default, the bank may advance the clients an interest-free loan (qard hassan in Arabic) to enable them to continue their payments during the recession in anticipation that they will pay in full when the economy rebounds.

The client retains their home rather than being faced with eviction— like the victims of the sub-prime crisis.

Of course Islamic banks have to appraise credit risk, and indeed are more cautious about who they should finance than conventional banks.

The banks in the United States charged high arrangement fees for sub-prime borrowers which were used to pay bonuses for those signing up new clients.

As the mortgages were sold on to Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, the arrangers were unconcerned that the sub-prime borrowers might be unable to meet their financial obligations.

Indeed, gifts were provided to entice the feckless to sign up, and the mortgages often exceeded the value of the property.

The banks in other words became mere booking agents, with no long term commitment to their clients.

The Islamic Banking Record

In contrast to conventional banks, no Islamic bank has failed and has needed government recapitalization which ultimately becomes a burden on hard pressed taxpayers.

All Islamic banks comply with the Basel II capital adequacy requirements and the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB)- the body which advises regulators with respect to Islamic finance- has produced detailed guidelines on compliance. The IFSB has an on-going relationship with the Bank for International Settlements-the institution which developed the Basel standards- and is certain to be consulted as Basel III guidelines are drafted for capital adequacy which are likely to be implemented globally in the coming decade.

The soundness of Islamic banks is accounted for by the fact that they use a classical banking model, with financing derived from deposits, rather than being funded by borrowings from wholesale markets.

Consequently when the credit crunch came and borrowing from wholesale markets was halted, Islamic banks were not exposed. However, Islamic banks are not immune from the effects of the global recession, and the fall in oil prices will inevitably have a negative impact on 2008 results of Gulf-based Islamic banks. The situation will become clearer from February once the audited financial statements start to appear.

Two Islamic housing financial institutions, Amlak and Tamweel are being merged, as both have faced problems given their exposure to the Dubai property market.

In Iran where all financial operations have been shariah-based since the Law on Usury Free Banking was introduced in 1983, banks have been relatively insulated from the financial crisis, ironically because United States sanctions meant they could not deal with institutions such as Lehman Brothers which were trying to place large amounts of toxic debt with Middle Eastern banks.

The sanctions therefore proved to be a blessing in disguise for Iran— although the Islamic banks there have been adversely affected recently by the fall in gas prices.

Nevertheless being state owned, institutions such as Bank Melli, the largest Islamic bank in the world, are well placed to ride out the global financial storm. With assets of over $50 billion, and 2007 profits exceeding $540 million, it has more than adequate resources to cope.

Islamic banks enjoy a built-in stabilizer to help them cope with economic downturns, as instead of paying interest to depositors, those with investment mudaraba accounts share in the banks profits.

Thus, if profitability declines in an economic downturn, depositors receive lower returns, but if profits rise they enjoy higher returns.

This profit sharing reduces risk for the banks and means they are less likely to become insolvent. However as the banks build up a profit equalization reserve, which can be used to finance pay-outs during difficult years, depositors benefit from some protection of their returns during economic downturns.

The last year has been difficult, if not disastrous, for equity investors, given the fall in stock market prices globally.

Investors in equities screened for shariah compliance have also suffered, but less than their conventional counterparts, because they have not invested in the shares of riba-based banks which have fared especially badly during the global financial turmoil.

Investors seeking Shariah compliance have portfolios which are more heavily weighted in sectors such as healthcare or utilities where revenue streams are maintained even during cyclical down-turns.

Prospects for Islamic Finance

Islamic banking provides a viable alternative to conventional banking and is less cycle prone. The spread of Islamic finance into western markets demonstrates that it now being treated seriously by regulators and finance ministries.

There are already five wholly Islamic banks in London, and the first Islamic bank will open in France in 2009. According to the conservative estimates of the Banker in October 2008, Islamic financial assets globally exceed $500 billion, a figure that could easily double over the coming decade.

The experience of Islamic banking in the United Kingdom has been extremely positive. Islamic Bank of Britain has been operating as a retail bank for over four years, and has attracted over 40,000 customers. HSBC Amanah, the Islamic finance subsidiary of HSBC, has been operating for ten years in London, focusing mainly on institutional clients and business finance.

Alburaq, the Islamic finance subsidiary of Arab Banking Corporation, has become the market leader for shariah compliant home finance in the United Kingdom.

None of these institutions has been affected by the global financial crisis, and their resilience bodes well for the future.

In addition to banking, Islamic sukuk security issuance has enormous potential. Unlike conventional bonds and notes, sukuk are backed by real assets, which provides assurance to investors.

Although global sukuk markets were adversely affected by the global recession in 2008, longer term prospects look promising, with the United Kingdom authorities promoting London as an international centre for sukuk issuance to rival Bahrain, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysian ringgit sukuk market has been largely unaffected by the global turmoil in securities markets, and issuers such as the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation, one of the world’s largest petrochemical producers, view sukuk as a desirable instruments to raise funding for plant expansion.

IOL.