AUGUSTA, Maine – An American bank in the state of Maine has introduced Islamic mortgages to comply with Sharia law. Androscoggin Bank took more than a year to develop the Islamic mortgage program in collaboration with community organizations and an expert in Sharia-compliant lending. The bank also hired Ayesha Baye, an Ethiopian immigran...
ANKARA (AA): Efforts are on to make Hong Kong’s markets more conducive to Islamic finance, Chief Executive John Lee said on Wednesday as he met the Indonesian business community in Jakarta. “We strive to enhance our financial market’s diversity, including in Islamic finance. Over the past decade, we have created a conducive platfor...
GENEVA (AA) – Islamic giving plays an increasing role in helping the forcibly displaced people, a UN refugee agency official said on Friday. At the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Khaled Khalifa, a senior advisor to the High Commissioner and UNHCR representative to Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, launched the fifth Isla...
MOSCOW (AA) – Russia has started a pilot project on implementing Islamic financial practices in several regions with Muslim-dominated population. The experiment will take place in Dagestan, Chechnya, Bashkiria and Tatarstan and will last for two years. After that, the authorities will decide on the suitability of the Islamic model for Ru...
NEW DELHI (AA) – An eminent Islamic economist and Indian scholar, Mohammad Nejatullah Siddiqi has passed away at the age of 91 in the US, Muslim organizations have confirmed. Siddiqi, an alumnus of India’s renowned Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and widely recognized for his work in Islamic economics, was the recipient of the prestigiou...
KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) – Uganda’s Finance Trust Bank has launched the country’s first Islamic Sharia-compliant account called Halal. Prominent Muslim personalities attended the launch event held in the country’s capital Kampala. Percy Lubega, head of business development at the bank, said: “We have today launched th...
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) will hold its annual meeting in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh from Wednesday. The four-day meeting will start under the main theme of “Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability” and will be attended by ministers from 57 member countries and representatives of Islam...
Training programs for four conventional banks on Islamic banking and finance have been conducted in Uzbekistan. The programs were developed by the Islamic Development Bank Institute and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector. The five-day training for each bank included the following subjects: principles of Islamic f...
Oman’s Islamic banking sector is likely to maintain its positive trajectory in the short-to-medium term despite structural challenges, Fitch Ratings reports. Increased awareness, strong retail demand for Islamic products, supportive regulations, and a strong push from the Islamic windows of conventional banks will drive growth. Growth in Isl...
Rising crude oil prices are expected to lower oil-rich Gulf nations’ need to sell Islamic bonds, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Higher oil prices will lead to lower sukuk issuance in 2022. Sukuk is the name for interst free bonds. That’s driven largely by lower financing needs among Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a...
