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Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has assigned its preliminary 'A-' issue rating to the proposed US-dollar-denominated Wakala trust certificates to be issued by Petronas Global Sukuk Ltd. Petronas Global Sukuk - a special-purpose company incorporated in Labuan for issuing sukuk trust certificates - will enter into a "Wakala" agreement with national oil corporation Petroliam Nasional Bhd. Under this agreement, the issuer will enter into an Ijara for at least 33 per cent of the issued amount and a Murabaha for at most 67 per cent of the issued amount with Petronas. S&P assesses remote the risks that a total loss event jeopardises the full and timely repayments of the trust certificates.

According to a report by the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM), the general insurance sector is set to record a 5.5 to 6 per cent increase in gross written premiums in 2015. The weaker local currency should help boost domestic consumption, despite global economic headwinds as revenues from oil and other commodities plummet. The government’s plans to maintain development spending should also promote growth, which in turn will see an increase in demand for insurance products. The new goods and services tax (GST) – to be introduced in April – is not expected to have a lasting impact on the sector, though it could slow growth over the next few months.

A plan is being floated on a “marriage” between Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) and Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. Sources say the idea of a merger between the two is being mooted at the shareholder level of both companies, namely the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH). A common factor the two companies have is Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, who is chairman of EPF and BIMB Holdings Bhd – Bank Islam’s listed parent company. BIMB wholly owns Bank Islam, which is its main income generator. Bankers say that if a merger is to take place, the EPF would be able to vote, unlike the situation in the failed merger with CIMB and RHB.

Malaysia's $40 billion sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional plans to issue a sukuk worth up to one billion ringgit ($279.17 million) to help fund schools, its managing director Azman Mokhtar said. The planned "social impact sukuk" is awaiting regulatory approval from Malaysian financial regulators. The move is aimed at opening funding for education to a broad pool of investors rather than financing it out of its own reserves, he added. Mokhtar said a lot of charitable organisations, family offices and trusts wanted to participate in the fundraising and this had helped prompt Khazanah into setting up the sukuk rather than using its own money.

The International Islamic Liquidity Management (IILM) has successfully reissued USD990 million benchmark size short-term Sukuk. i) A USD490 million 3-month tenor priced at 0.56260% profit rate, which received total bids of $1.1 1 billion from 11 bids. ii) A USD500 million 6-month tenor priced at 0.78570% profit rate, which received total bids of just over $1 billion from 14 bids. The reissuance of USD990 million Sukuk auction was fully subscribed by IILM primary dealers. After a quiet start to 2015, Sukuk market activity picked up this week a short-term issuance by the Bahrain Central Bank and with announcements of upcoming issuances from Gulf Finance House, Qatar Islamic Bank, Indonesian national air carrier Garuda Indonesia, and the Islamic Development Bank.

Maybank Islamic has launched its Shariah Centre of Excellence (SCOE), which focuses on research and education, talent development, thought leadership and community welfare. Its chief executive officer Muzaffar Hisham said the center was a virtual centre, which aimed to be a repository of Shariah knowledge and reference point on best practices for industry players, academic fraternities and the general public. The bank has collaborated with INCEIF, the Global University of Islamic Finance, including sponsoring the university’s auditorium and post-graduate students. Maybank Islamic has also rolled out other programmes under the SCOE initiative, including a public lecture series as well as Islamic finance publications.

L'Etat du Sénégal a été retenu par un jury composé de banquiers, de journalistes, de professeurs d’universités, de spécialistes de la Finance islamique, à l'issue d'une table ronde, mi-janvier 2015 à Kuala Lumpur, en Malaisie. La réunion de janvier dernier en Malaisie vient de décerner un satisfecit à l'Etat du Sénégal. Après son émission obligataire islamique sur le marché international d'un montant de 100 milliards de f CFA (premier du genre au sud du Sahara), menée par la BIS (Banque islamique du Sénégal) et arrangée par Citibank Dubaï et ICD, la signature du portefeuille de l'Etat prend ainsi de la voilure auprès des investisseurs et prêteurs "halal".

Weak economic conditions scuppered plans for a tie-up of Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd with RHB Capital Bhd and Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB). It would have created Southeast Asia’s fourth-largest bank with assets of US$190 billion (RM692.63 billion). MBSB, a non-bank lender and the smallest of the three firms, is now studying a plan to convert itself into a full-fledged Islamic lender. It said last week it would convert existing conventional financial products into Islamic ones while introducing new ones to close the gap with competitors. Meanwhile, both CIMB and RHB Capital have established, domestically focused, Islamic units.

Malaysia-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM) will hold two auctions next week to issue a combined US$990mil (RM3.6bil) worth of sukuk, under a programme that is now authorised to issue US$3bil (RM10.9bil) in short-term paper. The IILM would auction US$490mil (RM1.8bil) worth of three-month sukuk and US$500mil of six-month sukuk on Tuesday. It is only the second time IILM has issued six-month paper. The IILM programme, rated A-1 by Standard and Poor’s, has US$1.85bil (RM6.7bil) worth of sukuk currently outstanding.

Indonesian and Malaysian Islamic bonds are diverging as cheaper oil has opposite impacts on fiscal budgets. The yield on Indonesia’s US dollar Sukuk due 2022 fell to a 21-month low of 3.72 per cent in February, while Malaysia’s 2021 debt yield climbed to 3.05 per cent. Default risk for Indonesia has dropped nine basis points this year to 148, while that for Malaysia rose 15 to 121 just as both nations plan US currency global offerings before the Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates. Barclays Plc forecast a sovereign credit upgrade for Indonesia after an overhaul of a decades-old fuel-subsidy program last month. Malaysia, the region’s only major crude exporter, is contending with a drop in revenue and a higher budget-deficit target, prompting Fitch Ratings to warn of a possible rating downgrade.

The Malaysia-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM) will hold two auctions next week to issue a combined $990 million worth of sukuk, under a programme that is now authorised to issue $3 billion in short-term paper. The IILM will auction $490 million worth of three-month sukuk and $500 million of six-month sukuk next Tuesday. It is only the second time the IILM has issued six-month paper. The IILM programme, rated A-1 by Standard and Poor's, has $1.85 billion worth of sukuk currently outstanding. Its sukuk programme permits maturities of up to one year.

Malaysia reportedly plans to tap the global Islamic bond market for the first time in almost four years. Banks have been asked to submit proposals for a dollar-denominated debt offering. Malaysia will become the first sovereign to tap the overseas Islamic bond market this year and Indonesia also plans an offering. Malaysia’s state-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd. is seeking to sell a dollar Sukuk of as much as $7 billion. Malaysia last tapped the market in 2011, when it sold $2 billion of Shari’ah-compliant notes with maturities of five and 10 years. The yield on the 2.991 percent securities due in 2016 has climbed to 1.4 percent from 2014’s low of 0.98 percent.

The International Islamic Banking and Finance Law Conference took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 4-5, 2015. The conference hosted many high profile speakers including the CEO of CIMB Islamic Bank, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, who stressed the point that everyone now working in Islamic finance should make a strong effort to learn or further develop their skills in Shari’ah. Camille Paldi, FAAIF CEO, noted that it is imperative for the Islamic Finance industry to develop a unique dispute resolution system tailored for Islamic finance. In addition, Paldi suggests that it might be wise to form a global Islamic finance bankruptcy court to handle the world’s sukuk defaults.

Funding for infrastructure projects will be the driver for sukuk issuances this year, says CIMB Islamic Bank chief executive officer, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani. He said the sukuk issuance in 2015 could emulate the peak of 2012, if all planned infrastructure projects such as My Rapid Transit, the Pan-Borneo highway and Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high speed train venture come on stream. Badlisyah said for the market to be sustainable, more mid size offerings of between RM1 billion and RM2 billion are needed, as compared to a single mega size issuance of RM20 billion. Meanwhile, on CIMB Islamic,Badlisyah said the bank is currently working on a few sovereign deals which are expected to come on stream in the middle of this year.

Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp (Malaysia) Bhd, which has launched its first bancatakaful product offerings in collaboration with Great Eastern Takaful Bhd, is confident that takaful products will contribute 20% to its fee-based income for 2015 or RM15 million worth of contributions. Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia acting CEO Selamat Sirat said the collaboration marks the introduction of its first syariah compliant protection plan products, which are i-Great Raudhah and i-Great Bakti. Selamat added that it is looking at a 50% growth year-on-year for its fee-based income. It is also looking for the opportunity to expand the fee-based income business through its range of wealth management products.

Maybank Islamic Bhd, the Islamic banking arm of the Maybank Group, has introduced its latest offering – Maybank Islamic Custody Services, both domestic and abroad. Maybank Islamic will be targeting prospective clients such as the Government-linked Companies (GLCs) in Malaysia, fund management companies, institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds, which in total would have an estimated asset under management of about RM1.4 trillion. Maybank Islamic Custody Services also has the capability of monitoring non-syariah compliant securities should clients accidentally purchase them or should the syariah compliant securities subsequently deemed non-syariah compliant.

There will always be a need for takaful, however, takaful operators must work together to aggressively promote the product to the public, said Hong Leong MSIG Takaful Bhd. Chief Executive Officer Wan Mohd Fadzullah Wan Abdullah said it was imperative to educate the public that takaful was an all-weather financial planning tool. While the growth of takaful has been at a faster rate compared to conventional insurance, Wan Mohd Fadzullah said the volume was still low. Sri Lanka-based Amana Takaful Life Chief Executive Officer, Reyaz Jeffrey said one effective way of promoting takaful awareness, was through agency channels.

CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd. plans to start offering microloans in Malaysia as it seeks new growth avenues after delaying plans to create a Shariah-compliant megabank. The Malaysian lender will offer a wide range of products including microsavings, microinsurance and advisory services. While acknowledging the risks, CIMB will put in place a framework to manage defaults. The lender’s microfinance business will develop in stages starting at the higher end. Keeping in mind that prospects for growth are good, the bank is looking to launch something subject to relevant approvals by this year.

Malaysia-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM) has reissued $860 million worth of three-month Islamic bonds. The auction drew 11 bids worth $1.065 billion, with the sukuk priced at a profit rate of 0.553 percent. The IILM last went to the market in November when it increased its outstanding sukuk programme, rated A-1 by Standard and Poor's, to $1.85 billion from $1.65 billion. IILM sukuk are designed to meet a shortage of highly liquid, investment-grade financial instruments which Islamic banks can trade to manage their short-term funding needs.

Islamic finance magazine by the Malaysian ISRA consultancy for free download avalaible.