IslamicFinance.de

#Canadian Wealthsimple Financial introduced a Shariah-compliant portfolio to expand its product offerings in an increasingly crowded robo-adviser market. According to co-founder Michael Katchen, Wealthsimple’s Halal Investing portfolio is aimed at setting the company apart from its peers. He expects the portfolio’s interest to closely mirror the company’s socially responsible products. Wealthsimple’s fees are a flat 0.5% for the first $100,000 invested and drop to 0.4% on any additional investment. Privately held Wealthsimple has raised 100 million Canadian dollars ($79.6 million) over several funding rounds over the past three years led by a subsidiary of the Power Corporation of Canada. Katchen said he expects to tap another round of venture funding before seeking an initial public offering.

Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) are asking 17 American drug companies to be more transparent about when and why they raise prices. The investors say rising costs are putting prescription drugs out of reach for many patients. The ICCR hopes the proposals are listed in company proxy statements and put to shareholder votes at annual meetings in spring 2017. Some state legislatures have already introduced bills requiring companies to justify price increases. ICCR member Catherine Rowan hopes they get enough votes to prod companies to adopt pricing-transparency policies. She added that congressional committees have called some pharmaceutical chief executives to testify and the legislative pressures are going to persist.

Turkey’s biggest casual dining chain, Big Chefs, sold a minority share to an internationally backed private-equity firm, a sign that resilient consumer demand is drawing some investors to the country, despite July's failed coup rattling the economy. Meanwhile, leading Turkish ice-cream maker Mado is in advanced discussions with Bahrain-based Venture Capital Bank to sell a sizable minority stake, said Mr. Kotan, who is advising the Kahramanmaras-based deserts-and-food company.

Islamic entities known as participation banks offer bonds with potentially greater upside and more stability than standard government debt. According to a recent report from Standard & Poor’s, participation banks doubled their share of the country’s overall banking assets to about 5% between 2005 to 2015. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for further integration of Islamic law into all walks of life means participation banks are likely to grow. The system’s assets could reach some $300 billion by 2025, according to the Participation Banks Association of Turkey.

Authorities in #Switzerland and #Singapore took action against Swiss private bank BSI for failing to prevent money laundering and bribery related to its dealings with Malaysian development fund 1MDB. Switzerland's Attorney General opened criminal proceedings against the bank. The country's Financial Market Supervisory Authority ordered BSI to pay back 95 mn Swiss franks Swiss Bank Is Charged Over ($96 mn). Singapore’s central bank revoked BSI’s banking license there and fined it 13.3 mn Singapore dollars ($9.7 mn). The cross-border investigation related to 1MDB involves at least seven countries.

Malaysian government investment fund 1Malaysia Development defaulted on a series of bonds on Tuesday, weighing on the country’s stock and currency markets and raising concerns that the government may eventually have to spend billions to bail out the fund. The cross default triggered by non-payment, the continuing stand-off with IPIC and a widening investigation across at least six countries into possible corruption and money-laundering connected to the fund are starting to affect the markets.

Iran’s central bank governor Valiollah Seif demanded the Obama administration take more steps to facilitate his country’s banking transactions world-wide and warned the landmark nuclear agreement reached last year could be at risk if the U.S. doesn’t act. The White House in response to Seif’s comments replied that the U.S. is abiding by the nuclear agreement. Iranian banks have been unable to process international money transfers and finance trade freely in the months since the deal went into effect in January. Iran also has faced obstacles in repatriating tens of billions of dollars of its oil revenues.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spent about $15 million on luxury goods from his personal bank accounts. On Christmas Eve 2014, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stepped onto Hawaii’s 18-hole Kaneohe Klipper course for a round of golf diplomacy with U.S. President Barack Obama. Off the fairways, another side of Mr. Najib’s time in office was on display. Two days earlier, the prime minister’s credit card was charged $130,625 to Chanel in Honolulu. The credit card was paid from one of several private bank accounts owned by Mr. Najib that global investigators believe received hundreds of millions of dollars diverted from the indebted state-run fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Falcon Private Bank Ltd. on Wednesday sought to distance itself from a controversy involving a Malaysian state fund caught up in allegations of political corruption, saying the transactions it carried out were based on purely commercial terms. Several Swiss banks, including Falcon, have come under scrutiny for transactions involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd. fund, or 1MDB. Among the transactions that are being investigated by authorities in Switzerland and Malaysia is the transfer of $681 million to the private account of Najib Razak, Malaysian Prime Minister.

Countries that are intensely religious are typically less innovative than those that aren’t, according to a new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study, titled “Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy of Science, Religion, and Growth,” compares religious beliefs and belief in God with scientific innovation as measured by issuance of patents. The paper also delves into the types of political and scientific regimes that result from religious conviction, ranging from a Western European model with relatively unimpeded scientific progress and a declining role for the Church to a theocratic model with a political class closely allied to religious leaders who are resistant to scientific discoveries. Both feature high taxes, though spending is channeled toward different ends.

In a speech marking the end of a three-day economic conference, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi reiterated his commitment to peace and growth as he sought more investments from the international community, after receiving commitments worth billions of dollars. Egypt signed investment deals worth more than $138 billion on the first two days of the conference, while its Arab Gulf neighbors—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates—pledged another $12 billion to help stabilize its economy. But Mr. Sisi, in his concluding remarks, said his country would need a lot more, as much as $300 billion over the coming years, to make its economy strong enough to give its vast population a genuine chance to prosper.

Turkey’s government seized control of Islamic lender Bank Asya and dismissed its executives, marking the latest extraordinary step in a highly politicized monthslong battle over the company. Late on Tuesday, the country’s banking watchdog transferred 63% of Bank Asya’s preferred shares into the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund, which answers directly to the prime minister. The fund then replaced the bank’s leadership with a new chief executive and board of directors. The bank’s shares, which have been allowed to trade only one houreach afternoon since September, dropped 1 kurus to 60 kurus (25 cents), a record low, and then rose to 63 kurus as Istanbul’s market closed.

In most of Europe, rental-apartment ownership is fragmented. That is beginning to change. In the U.K., France and Spain, institutions are accumulating multifamily properties. The fledgling industry in Europe is being powered by demographic changes, strong real-estate sales, opportunities created by the financial downturn and government actions designed to encourage development. One sign of growth: foreign investment. Legal changes also are paving the way. Meanwhile, the political winds are also changing when it comes to the multifamily sector.

Swiss voters will decide Nov. 30 on an initiative that would force the country’s central bank to more than double its gold holdings. The “Save Our Swiss Gold” initiative would require the Swiss National Bank to hold a fifth of its assets in gold within five years. It would also prohibit the bank from selling any of its gold in the future and require that Swiss gold held overseas be repatriated. Organizers of the vote, members of the conservative Swiss People’s Party, say the new rules are needed because a three-year effort to cap the strength of the Swiss franc has left the SNB holding piles of euros, a currency that has been devalued in the wake of the financial crisis. The initiative has drawn opposition from the government, lawmakers and business groups.

Turkish authorities haven't responded to pleas by Bank Asya that they act to prevent what the bank has called unfair attacks on it, Chief Executive Officer Ahmet Beyaz said. The lack of action risks setting a dangerous precedent about the independence of regulatory agencies, he said. In his first interview since Thursday, when a spokesman for Turkey's Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency said that the bank had been put under review under a law that gives the regulator broad powers over the lender, Mr. Beyaz accused BRSA officials of improperly revealing that the bank was under review.

Turkey's banking watchdog placed Asya Katilim Bankasi AS under watch and armed regulators with broad powers over the beleaguered Islamic lender. The move brings the bank one step closer to state seizure, as capital outflows and a ratings downgrade exacerbate damages from a political fight embroiling the lender, which has fallen from the largest of Turkey's four Islamic banks in December to third in terms of assets.

Chief Executive of Bank of London and the Middle East, Humphrey Percy expects the sukuk market issuance to grow and that will be underpinned by new sovereigns. He is not only referring to the U.K.’s maiden sukuk but also potential new Islamic bond sales by Luxembourg, South Africa and Hong Kong. Mr. Percy argues that demand for high-quality sukuk is on the rise because under ever more stringent banking regulations those investments can be treated as part of the lenders’ mandatory liquid assets buffers. In addition, as global interest rates could go up, entities would be more compelled to consider selling sukuk, Mr. Percy said. And the more sukuk issuance from relative newcomers outside the traditional markets, the better for the overall development of the industry, Mr. Percy noted.

Trading in the shares of Turkey's third-largest Islamic lender, Asya Katilim Bankasi AS, was temporarily suspended Thursday after its share price whipsawed in the last 24 hours amid conflicting government statements about a takeover of the bank. Bourse Istanbul made the announcement just as the afternoon session commenced. Shares of the lender known as Bank Asya plummeted by as much as 9% on Thursday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief adviser, Yigit Bulut, decried talks of an acquisition by the state as a farce, reversing a 7% rally from Wednesday. The stock was down 5.3% at 1.24 liras ($0.57) at midday before trading in the shares was halted. Bank Asya was also hit Thursday by the Presidency of Revenue Administration and the Social Security Institution, which canceled agreements.

Bahrain’s Gulf Finance House has become entangled in a dispute with a former executive at its Dubai-based private equity unit who the company alleges falsified invoices to siphon almost $5 million into bank accounts controlled by him. David Haigh, who was the deputy chief executive of GFH Capital until resigning this March, was arrested shortly after he arrived in Dubai about a month ago and has been in detention since. Legal authorities in Dubai are weighing criminal charges, according to an emailed statement from GFH, while the company has also filed a civil suit against him in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Mr. Haigh denied the GFH allegations.

At the 9th annual world Islamic insurance conference in Dubai, the emphasis, as usual, was on the industry’s seemingly limitless expansion potential. True, takaful business worldwide increased at around 8% to $19 billion in 2012, with plenty of room for the sector to expand. However, the current takaful industry is very fragmented with few players that can claim to be pan-regional, let alone global players. That in itself adds to the lack of global accountancy, corporate governance and procedural standards. There are currently few signs of heightened mergers and acquisitions activity in the takaful sector, indicating the issue of scale is not one that will be addressed in the near future.