The seventh annual G20 Interfaith Forum concluded its meetings on Saturday after five days of sessions that addressed the COVID-19 emergencies, climate change, social, racial, and economic disparities, environmental challenges, the preservation and safeguarding of sacred sites, and other pressing issues. Originally intended to be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, host of the 2020 G20 Summit, the conference was conducted virtually in response to the global pandemic. Attendance exceeded 2,000 participants from more than 90 countries. The crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic played a central role in the discussions at the Forum. The discussions offered vivid testimony to the need for the world's political leaders to include religious actors in policymaking processes including notably the November 2020 G20 Leaders' Summit in Riyadh. Formal recommendations resulting from the Forum will be shared with G20 leadership in the coming weeks.
According to Moody’s Investors Service, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector’s credit strengths lie within its robust liquidity buffer and high quality treasury portfolio. While ICD remained lossmaking in 2019, the size of the losses narrowed significantly, and capital adequacy was supported by ongoing payments from shareholders under the second general capital increase. Moody’s analyst Thaddeus Best expects that the ICD will temper its balance sheet expansion in order to preserve capital. It is anticipated that the bank’s increased focus on term lending operations will help ease credit risk over the coming years.
According to Moody’s Investors Service, concentration on retail financing and other structural features will help Islamic banks safeguard against a deterioration in asset quality and profitability. Islamic banks have sufficient loss buffers against financial stress, with their funding and liquidity remaining stable. The seven largest Islamic banks in Malaysia, five of which are subsidiaries of domestic banking groups with conventional operations, have a heavy concentration on retail financing, which is less vulnerable to an economic downturn. In addition, Malaysian banks generally have prudent underwriting practices for retail financing, which adds to their asset quality.
Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and Islamic Finance news (IFN) have announced their collaboration to provide insights and analysis for Islamic finance worldwide. IFN readers will gain access to Moody's exclusive content covering Islamic finance, ranging from sukuk issuance trends in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to the latest trends in Islamic banking. Moody's is a global integrated risk assessment firm that empowers organizations to make better decisions. IFN is the leading Islamic finance news and solutions provider in the world, housing the largest pool of Islamic finance-related articles and coverage.
Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB).
Dubai Islamic Bank's A3 long-term Issuer ratings are derived from the bank's ba2 standalone baseline credit assessment and a five notch systemic support uplift based on Moody's view of a very high likelihood of government support from United Arab Emirates (rated Aa2), in case of need. DIB's ba2 BCA reflects the bank's solid profitability, deposit-funded balance sheet, and healthy liquidity reserves. These strengths are moderated by Moody's expectation of downside pressure on the bank's solvency in the 12-18 months on the back of lower oil prices, reduced investor confidence and the coronavirus-induced disruption.
Moody’s expects sukuk issuance to modestly decline by 5% this year to about $170 billion because of the coronavirus crisis. Despite the decline, 2020 will still see the second highest sukuk issuance total ever, following a 36% increase in 2019. Total issuance in the first six months of 2020 dropped to $77 billion, down 12% from the same period last year, as activity in Malaysia and Indonesia flagged. Issuance in southeast Asia dropped by 25%, while volumes in the Middle East rose 7%. Volumes are likely to rebound in the second half of 2020, as governments raise money to finance their responses to the coronavirus crisis.
Winning over conservative Muslims is both a challenge and multi-billion dollar opportunity for fintech firms in Indonesia. Questions about compliance with Islamic law are a significant hurdle for the adoption of digital payments and other fintech services. Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body has issued an edict deeming virtual money acceptable, as long it met specific conditions. To showcase the compliance of their services with Islam, fintech firms are organising forums with Islamic scholars and sponsoring religious festivals. GoPay has partnered with the Indonesian Mosque Council to enable digital donations, including zakat, or compulsory alms giving, in its 800,000 mosques. Some of the startups say they are finding their appeal extends beyond Muslims. One of them is peer-to-peer lender Alami, which has disbursed over $7.5 million in sharia-compliant financing to small and medium enterprises since May.
A majority of people around the world believe capitalism in its current form is doing more harm than good. The survey was launched in 2000 to explore the theories of political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who after the collapse of communism declared that liberal capitalist democracy had seen off rival ideologies and so represented "the end of history". That conclusion has since been challenged by several critics. Of possible interest to corporate leaders gathering in Davos this week was the finding that trust in business outweighed that in governments and that 92% of employees said CEOs should speak out on the social and ethical issues of the day.
Peer-to-peer lending platform Beehive has released an insightful new report revealing the state of MENA's SME ecosystem. The report is based on a survey of 175 SME owners and senior management and a roundtable of 13 prominent SME founders / CEOs. Key findings from the report include: surveyed MENA SMEs have more women in senior positions than the global average. 28% of respondents see innovation as a priority for growth, yet only 2% of business owners are currently trying to access finance to fund it. SMEs offer young people a great opportunity for development. 48% of SMEs would hire someone under 25 with no experience. The report focused on key areas that impact SMEs such as talent acquisition, innovation and growth factors. The survey results showed positive indicators such as SME appetite for market expansion and the opportunity for women in business.
Money managers poured into the Gulf region till Saturday’s unprecedented attack on Saudi Arabia’s key oil facilities. That drove record gains for bonds in August as they sought refuge in securities boasting an average credit score of A+ amid global trade tensions. According to a Bloomberg Barclays index, Saudi Arabian bonds handed investors the biggest loss, about triple that of Qatari securities. The strikes in Saudi Arabia could escalate into a showdown, with the kingdom and U.S. on one side, and Iran and proxy groups from Yemen to Lebanon, on the other. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the assault and warned that oil installations in the Arab nation remain a target.
The Hajdari Group recently announced the creation of its newest, faith-based financial planning platform: InvestHalal. InvestHalal utilizes a strict code-of-ethics and series of standards established by prestigious global authorities like the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). Access to faith-based investment strategies has generally been unavailable in the United States to Islamic investors. President of the Hajdari Group, Zaim Hajdari said the Hajdari Group has finally remedied this oversight. InvestHalal offers asset allocation and investment diversification options, a wide variety of investment alternatives and services structured to individual needs: retirement, education, tax and estate planning, as well as other Sharia-compliant wealth allocation.
Two standard-setting bodies are proposing new guidelines for sukuk that would make them more transparent and easier to structure. The Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) published draft accounting standards for sukuk. It clarifies how sukuk should be treated on balance sheets and which information issuers should disclose. The AAOIFI said it had also formed a working group to overhaul its sharia standards for sukuk. Last year, the Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) drafted its own guidelines for disclosure related to Islamic capital market products. Aligning the market around common standards and requiring all issuers to disclose the same information could increase investment in sukuk.
A group of nuns and other religiously-affiliated investors have lost faith in Wells Fargo and filed a shareholder resolution calling on the bank to report on a fake accounts scandal that led to a $190 million settlement. The bank employees opened as many as 2 million checking, savings and credit card accounts without the customers' permission in order to meet sales quotas. The San Francisco-based bank said it would provide more specifics on areas like its risk controls, but that did not happen. Wells Fargo's board has taken some steps since the settlement to address concerns, but the religious shareholders now say they need more changes. For instance another resolution filed by the Unitarian Universalist Association calls on Wells Fargo's board to study how to connect executive pay with ethical conduct.
The world is sinking under too much debt and an ageing global population means countries' debt piles are in danger of growing out of control, the European chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management has warned. Andrew Wilson, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said growing debt piles around the world posed one of the biggest threats to the global economy. The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also sounded out a warning about Japan's growing debt pile. The Goldman chief also said that warnings about liquidity shortages in the market were being "overplayed", especially with regards to the corporate bond market.
As well as the religious aspect, customers are attracted to Islamic finance by its flexibility, link to real economic activity and its ban on transactions involving speculation or uncertainty. To meet ever-increasing demand, Islamic finance has developed numerous products compliant with sharia law, from loans for cars and houses to funding for major infrastructure projects. The industry, which spans more than 70 countries, could be worth $4 trillion by 2020, according to forecasters including Standard and Poor's. About 80 percent of the assets are now in banks, 15 percent in Islamic bonds called Sukuk, four percent in investment funds and one percent in Islamic insurance known as Takaful.
Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank is going ahead with an initial public offering worth $6 billion despite opposition from Muslim clerics. The IPO from Sunday, making NCB the last Saudi bank to go public, is expected to be one of the largest in the world this year. However, Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the kingdom's official Council of Senior Ulemas, said that the IPO is haram, or forbidden under Islamic tenets which ban usury. On the other hand, NCB's sharia advisory council on Thursday declared the share offer to be acceptable under Islamic law. An NCB prospectus says the bank will offer 300 million shares to the public at 45 riyals ($12) each, for a value of $3.6 billion, while another 200 million shares will be allocated to the state pension agency bringing the total to $6 billion.