Issuance is booming but barriers will continue to hold back the market’s potential.

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Corporate finance roundtable

The favourable tax haven is actively seeking to become the first Western centre to provide a Shariah-compliant platform by reviewing its existing legislation

Saudi base gives Islamic specialist a platform for regional expansion.

One area in which both Malaysia and CIMB have excelled in taking an early lead is Islamic finance. Malaysia has the most sophisticated industry, and enabling framework, for Islamic finance anywhere in the world; within it, CIMB is probably the name most closely associated with innovation.

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Best Trade Finance Providers

The fortunes of Tunisia and Egypt are diverging rapidly since the Arab Spring. Tunisia offers encouraging signs but it is less influential.

Listed on Tadawul; State wants more issuance

Dubai Bank ‘in dire need of capital’; Amlak next for takeover

Turkey’s participation banks – the local term for Islamic banks – are not immune to the funding pressures facing bigger institutions in the country, although they are having considerably greater success than their conventional cousins. There are four such banks, three of which have strong Gulf parents, from which most funding has traditionally been raised. Turkiye Finans has 64% of its shares held by National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. Al Baraka Bank is owned by the Bahraini group of the same name. And Kuveyt Turk is majority owned by the Kuwait Finance House. Only Bank Asya is locally owned.

Potential in other media; Pooled films reduce risk

Asset owners and managers are signing up to a series of principles on how they invest in agricultural land. Will this mollify critics of the land grab? Nick Lord reports.

Feeding the world is the most pressing issue facing society. Billions of dollars of new investment is needed to forestall future crises in both supply and price. Markets and financial institutions can play a crucial role in meeting the challenge. But how can they do so without being seen to exploit the most crucial resource of all? Sudip Roy reports.

Complex financing comprises three facilities; Biggest Islamic deal for private-sector borrower

Part one: Middle Eastern private banking debate: The region reconsiders its wealth needs post-crisis

On top of the market

Five years after Saudi banks saw their investment banking and asset management arms split from their commercial banks, the sector is still finding its feet. Three of the firms that got a head start tell Chris Wright how the battle for market share is likely to play out.

Fewer prestige buyouts by state funds; International investors wary of political risk

Samir Radwan was a surprise choice as Egypt’s new finance minister – even to himself. Appointed at the height of the chaos, the retired economist is working hard to sustain Egypt’s finances and economy through a period of extraordinary upheaval. Eric Ellis joins him in Cairo

Just as it comes to terms with the fallout of the global economic crisis, the Islamic sector must prepare for political instability. Dominic Dudley reports.

International firms evacuate staff; Further woe for local investment banks

Banks tap emerging markets growth The rapid expansion of trade within emerging markets is a big opportunity. But Basle III requirements represent a huge risk to trade finance.

Wafra was a pioneer in Islamic structured products when it began offering Shariah-compliant leasing products to its clients more than a decade ago.

No bank comes close to disturbing Malaysia’s CIMB Islamic’s hold of the best Islamic bank in Asia award, certainly no local one. CIMB Islamic is the world’s fastest-growing Islamic financial institution based on total assets. The firm’s asset growth rate over the past four years has been so rapid that the growth rate of its nearest rival, Noor Islamic, is half as much.

HSBC Amanah cannot afford to become complacent. Standard Chartered Saadiq is keeping up the pressure and is a worthy rival for the top spot as best international Islamic bank. A good example is Standard Chartered’s launch of the first Islamic dollar nostro account in the US. However, over the past year HSBC has appeared determined not to be eclipsed by Standard Chartered in Islamic finance. As of October 2010, HSBC Amanah’s operating profit was up 20% on 2009.

No other project finance deal over the past 12 months has the same gravitas as the $7.5 billion financing for Ma’aden Aluminium. The deal and a previous Ma’aden venture, Ma’aden Phosphate, are the two largest endeavours in Saudi Arabia’s attempt to diversify from a hydrocarbon-dependent economy. The two projects will provide a third pillar, after oil/gas and petrochemicals, to the Kingdom’s economy.