Speakers at a webinar organised by the Islamic Finance Research Institute of Ghana, have recommended that the country’s banking sector look into ways of initiating short-term efforts to develop a fully-fledged Islamic banking and finance ecosystem in the country. The speakers emphasised their urge to ‘start small’ and suggested collaborating with conventional banks to open up Islamic banking windows to roll out Shariah-compliant products and services to those interested in investing in the ethical finance industry. Why it matters? Zunaiba Abdul Rahman, an M...

Islamic banks in Qatar are expected to have opportunities for attracting Islamic business to the country, following the opening of regional markets to business again, according to experts from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q). The experts included John O’Brien, Senior Associate Dean, Faculty and Outreach; and Fuad Farooqi, Area Head, Business Administration, who cited data gathered from Qatar Security Market Analytics Research and Teaching Laboratory (Q-SmartLab) at CMU-Q.  Why it matters?   As Qatar has two distinct banking sectors – Islamic and...

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is set to become an investment hub for Islamic banking and finance, according to the Bangsamoro Regional Board of Investments (RBOI). Chief Executive Officer of the RBOI, Lawyer Ishak Mastura, stated that the RBOI has established initiatives to provide investors with fiscal and non-fiscal initiatives, which has received positive support from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Why it matters? The BARMM, with a population of around four million is the only Muslim-majority region in the Philipp...

Bank Indonesia (BI) cut its benchmark seven-day reverse repurchase rate on the 18th of February 2021 by 25 basis points (bps) to 3.5%. BI’s Governor, Perry Warjiyo indicated that BI was lowering its economic growth forecasts for 2021 for Indonesia to a range of 4.3%-5.3%, from BI’s previous forecast of between 4.8%-5.8%. Why it matters? Indonesia’s first recession in over twenty years threatens to continue into 2021 following restrictions on movement imposed to stem the increase in COVID-19 cases, worrying policy make...

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Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has affirmed the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation's (ITFC) long-term foreign-currency issuer rating at A1, with a Stable Outlook. Concurrently, ITFC’s short-term foreign-currency issuer rating has also been affirmed at Prime-1.  Ratings Rationale  The affirmed rating reflects ITFC’s robust capital position, which is almost entirely funded by equity operations, which balances the corporation’s very low leverage against its weak asset quality and weak, yet improving, asset performa...

Bank Danamon has signed an IDR 1.5 trillion Islamic financing agreement with Bio Farma to assist with vaccine production in Indonesia, according to local media reports.  Why it matters?  The financing facility will be used by Bio Farma to purchase raw materials and supporting materials for the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Indonesia. The Government of Indonesia is preparing 15 million bulk vaccines through Bio Farma to meet domestic requirements for the first phase of vaccination in 2021. The collaboration between Bank Da...