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Dubai Holding, a conglomerate owned by the emirate's ruler, and Kuwait's Al Fajer Re plan to launch a Emirates Retakafulfirm with $500m of authorised capital in January to tap unserved demand in retakaful. The new firm, Emirates Retakaful, will be set up in the Dubai International Financial Centre, said Fareed Lutfi, director of insurance services at Dubai Holding. There will be scope to add more investors to the firm, he added. Emirates Retakaful will focus on covering general takaful business, such as oil- and aviation-related risks, and later explore family takaful risk.

According to Kuwait Finance House (KFH) CEO Mohammed Al-Omar, the continuous increase in profit over five consecutive quarters underlines the success of the restructuring process and the management's decision to focus on main operations to achieve sustainable profit, offer better returns to shareholders and depositors, and easing burden off the institution. He explained that that a rearrangement of the real estate portfolio is occuring, to benefit from current developments in the real estate market, in terms of rates and shifting to certain kinds of real estate and land. Furthermore, Al-Omar noted that the strategy that KFH adopted regarding its overseas banks, has played a role in cementing their roles and making them more profitable.

Kuwait Finance House has signed a memorandum of understanding to finance $115 million for Bahrain-based Foulath Holding Company for five years. Shaheen Al-Ghanem, International Banks General Manager, KFH said the deal was part of KFH’s efforst to expand in foreign markets. Foulath is owned by GIC and Qatar steel Company in addition to the National Industries Group, Gulf Cables and Kuwait Foundry Company. Foulath owns factories in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and its businesses cover various countries in the Middle East.

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded by one notch the global foreign and local-currency deposit ratings of Kuwait-based Boubyan Bank (Boubyan) to Baa1 from Baa2. At the same time, Moody's has upgraded Boubyan's standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) to D+ from D, equivalent to ba1 baseline credit assessment (BCA) from ba2. All ratings assigned to Boubyan carry a stable outlook. Moody's rating upgrade primarily reflects the strengthening of asset-quality and coverage metrics and improvement in capitalisation levels. However, these strengths are moderated by high concentration risks and challenges stemming from rapid growth.

In the executive summary of its report on GCC Islamic Finance, Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” notes that at the end of 2012, assets under management (AUMs) in Islamic finance reached $1.76 trillion. The Islamic finance industry reached about $434 billion in size, in the GCC, for the year ending 2011. The report points out that global Takaful market is estimated to touch about $25 billion by end of 2015. A variety of factors contribute to the remarkable rise in the Islamic finance assets, said Markaz, including growing GDP, rising middle class society, and most importantly increased awareness of the concept of Islamic finance. However, Markaz also notes there are challenges, relating to evolving standards, shortage of expertise in the industry. Furthermore, the capital markets in the GCC region are relatively underdeveloped which hinders the growth of Islamic finance in the region.

Kuwait Finance House KFH Wealth Management General Manager Matthew Welch stated that reinforcing the Bank's private banking and wealth management service is a key pillar of the restructuring and transformation plan that the Bank is presently implementing. Matthew noted the rising competition in the high net worth segment and that clients are increasingly discerning in selecting the institution with whom they choose to invest. He explained that KFH is keen on harnessing the investment capabilities of the wider KFH group to bring new opportunities and investment ideas for the benefit of the Bank's high net worth client base. In addition, he noted that clients now expect increased access to investment advisory and discretionary management services to help them navigate the present volatile market conditions.

The $490 million short-term sukuk program issued by the International Liquidity Management Corporation is an important stage in the evolution of Sukuk product, according to Abdulwahab Al-Roshood, Kuwait Treasury General Manager at Kuwait Finance House (KFH). The corporation has recently issued the first issuance for 3 months with the participation of 8 gulf and foreign banks including KFH. The sukuk issued by the corporation enjoys the privilege of being short term, rated as the short- term highest credit rating A-1 by the international Standard and Poor's. Al-Roshood expressed his confidence that KFH 's participation of the corporation's businesses since establishment will add value to its efforts and its role in sukuk market.

Kuwait's Warba Bank will be listed on the country's stock exchange tomorrow after a restriction on public trading of the stock ended. A majority of the shares in the lender, set up with a capital of 100 million dinars ($351m), were gifted to Kuwaiti nationals as part of the state's wealth sharing, with each citizen receiving 684 shares. The remaining 24 per cent is owned by the sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority. The listing does not include sale of any new shares. Shareholders were restricted from trading their stock on the exchange for three years after the April 2010 establishment date.

The number of the I phone Quran application users that was launched by Kuwait Finance House (KFH) 3 years ago has reached a million and 800 thousand, around 1800 daily users. The third version of I phone Quran application has high resolution, in addition to having the numerous features like night Reading and different color schemes. Moreover, the number of Android users of the Quran application has increased to reach 50 thousand, about 60 users a day. The Android app has been recently launched with many distinguished features, and users can download the application for free by typing 'KFH' during the search. KFH is keen to upgrade its applications and its programs on the internet. KFH is also eager to use advanced technology to serve the public, since this is part of its social responsibility.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH), represented by the Personal Finance Department, has organized a meeting with suppliers of installments finance. The meeting discussed the current market conditions and how to find means to improve it in a beneficial way to all parties on the one hand, and catering to clients' needs on the other. Personal Finance Executive Manager at KFH Talal Al-Hnaidi said, on the sideline of the meeting, that the bank is keen on organizing continuous forums and meetings with large companies and institutions. Moreover, Al-Hnaidi mentioned that KFH supports merchants and communicates with them to discuss the market conditions and to share ideas, thoughts and information that can serve the progress business and can contribute in strengthening the economy and obtaining growth.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) in collaboration with Kuveyt Turk (KFH Turkey) has launched a new Turkish real estate financing service. This service provides KFH customers with an end-to-end solution to their Turkish real estate requirements, tailored to their specific needs. It will support them searching for properties in Turkey, providing assistance on negotiation of an acquisition price, competitive Islamic real estate financing and offering post-sales services, should investors need to manage the properties in their absence. A specialized section has been established by KFH in Kuwait City, in order to support customers purchasing real estate in Turkey. This office acts as a contact point and provides customers with the relevant administrative services related to Turkish real estate, like document gathering and handling, information distribution and logistics handling.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) announced 103 million Kuwaiti dinar or $362 million of precautionary provisions on Tuesday, as it posted a smaller than expected rise in second-quarter net profit. The bank did not provide any more details on the provisions, which cover the first half of the year, nor a comparative figure for the same period the year before. It added that indicators related to profit growth and operating revenues were positive. Net profit rose to 26.8 million dinars in the three months ended June. The lender did not provide further details on its profit. It said it would continue with its expansion plans after its 319 million dinar capital increase last month.

Islamic banking is yet to get a foothold in the country with RBI not extending the permission, but the Indian subsidiary of a Kuwait company is setting up a global support centre providing Islamic core banking solutions at Infopark, Cherthala, on Friday. Path Solutions India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Path Solutions K.S.C.C, Ku­w­ait. According to Mohammed Kateeb, group chairman and CEO of Path Solutions, the company plans to have over 30 professionals working from its global support and development centre by the end of second quarter. Path Solutions wants to utilize the local skilled resources to deliver value-added software solutions and services to its clients. The centre will be opened by Aroor MLA A.M. Arif at 5 pm. IT principal secretary P.H. Kurien and Infopark CEO Hrishikesh Nair will attend the function among others.

Investment Dar Co. will reduce borrowings after creditors holding 30 percent of its debt signed up to a new loan deal backed by assets including luxury carmaker Aston Martin. The lenders to the Kuwaiti company agreed to a cash payment totaling 5.7 percent of their debt and a portion of a new Islamic loan equal to about 44 percent. While the new deal represents a writedown of 50 percent it gives creditors more security over the assets. Nine assets will back the new facility, with Investment Dar’s 34 percent stake in Aston Martin the most significant. Creditors not taking the offer retain their claims under the approved restructuring plan. Lenders who have taken the settlement will become 15 percent shareholders in the company holding the assets, while the new $437 million Islamic loan will be repaid through unscheduled asset sales and has a tenor of up to seven years.

General Manager of International Banking and Acting Chief Investment Officer at Kuwait Finance House KFH Shaheen Al-Ghanim has announced the emerging KFH Investment Company, previously named Liquidity House. He added that this company will be KFH's main investment arm locally, regionally, and globally. Renaming Liquidity House to KFH Investment is one of the results of the new investment strategy, which is considered to be part of KFH's development and restructuring plan. All of KFH investment holdings and activities will be consolidated and supervised by KFH Investment Company. Furthermore, Al-Ghanim revealed that this company will survive Liquidity Management House (LMH). He noted that the Shareholders General Assembly of LMH had been convened last Thursday and approved changing the name of the company.

Job Description

• Define Bank’s Retail Banking branding strategy in conjunction with Head of Marketing. Positions and develop the brand in-line with the banks overall strategy.
• Create an integrated sales and marketing strategy for the Retail Banking division. Reviews with GM- Retail Banking and Head of Marketing to gains necessary approval.
• Develop and manages implementation and roll-out of sales and marketing plans to achieve income, profit and market share growth objectives for Retail Banking division.

Job Description

The Candidate will be :-

- Co-ordinating between the commercial banking operation and the IT system.

- Developing & Planning for the Islamic Banking Business in the organization.

- Supervising training programs which are focusing on Islamic banking "companies"
Skills

- Minimum 10 years Experience in a field of Islamic banking operation.
- Computer literacy & Programming laungue is a plus.
- Fluency in spoken and written English & Arabic is a must.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Dynamic with leadership qualities .
- Pleasant personality with mature demeanour.

Kuwait Finance House said on Monday that a customer had settled $296.6 million of debt owed to the bank and that the impact of the receipt would be reflected in its second-quarter results. The customer had owed 32.6 million dinars or $114.3 million to KFH and 51 million dinars to subsidiaries. KFH did not give any details about the debtor, or say whether the customer was a corporate entity or an individual. The bank is expected to release second-quarter earnings in August.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) announced the official launch of its new Gold Account. This product enables KFH's clients to buy and sell physical gold biscuits securely. Available at KFH's Head Office branch in Kuwait, the gold biscuits each weigh 100grams and have a purity value of 999.9. KFH clients will be able to open Gold Accounts with no fees charged from 01 July by purchasing a minimum of one gold biscuit. They will then be able to choose whether to withdraw the physical gold or to keep it in custody with KFH without charge for an initial period. Further purchases or sales of gold can then be done conveniently and securely through crediting or debiting a customers' current or savings account. KFH currently plans to offer customers the ability to open Gold Accounts in other branches in Kuwait City in the near future.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) has been granted an Independent Assurance Certificate of its Corporate Sustainability Report from Ernst and Young (E&Y). This certification came after meeting or exceeding all requirements of the certification criteria. Nadeem Shafi, the partner of (E&Y), handed the certificate to KFH's CEO Muhammad Sulaiman Al-Omar in the presence of a number of officials. The bank has been certified according to data and information related to the bank's sustainability performance, internal protocols, processes and controls related to the sustainability performance data and information related to the workforce. Moreover, environmental data, achievements and awards as well as training and community development initiatives, were also taken into consideration. E&Y sustainability assurance team also visited the company's corporate office to gain confidence in the data and selected claims presented in the report.