Islamic banking in the crisis, Syrian microfinance

A report on Islamic banking from the Kipp Report provides a good, if brief, look at the impact of the credit crisis on Islamic banking. The most important statement, in my opinion, is a quote from the president of the Islamic Development Bank:

"But it’s becoming clear that Islamic finance’s conservatism did not fully shield it from the ills of the economic crisis. 'The word immune is inappropriate here,' the president of Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, Ahmed Muhammed Ali, says."

Syria, which passed a microfinance law in 2007, has seen microfinance institutions, both conventional and Islamic, struggle to find a sustainable business model. Most began not chargin interedt, although now most conventional microfinance institutions charge 1% per month and Islamic microfinance institutions charge markups of 5% (the time horizon for this financing is not provided, so the numbers are not directly comparable). As with all microfinance, in order to make it a part of a poverty-reduction strategy, it does need to integrate its focus on raising incomes, while at the same time making enough money on an institution level to make it self-sufficient.

Other News

• Gulf Finance House is requesting a partial loan deferral for $100 million of the $300 million Islamic debt due next week. A $50 million sukuk due in July 2012 is "in negotiation" according to the acting CEO Ted Pretty. The company issued a short official statement on February 2nd.
  
• Barclay's launched two Islamic finance products in Kenya. Previously, there were two banks (First Community Bank and Gulf African Bank) offering Shari'ah-compliant banking services.
  
• Tamweel is planning to ask for its shares to resume trading. Its shares were halted in November 2008.
  
• RAM Ratings wrote an article about the Malaysian debt markets in The Star newspaper. The article included data on new sukuk programs and issuance in new facilities. (Apologies if the table is not formatted well)
  

	2007	2008	2009
New facilities	RM86.7bn	RM16.1bn	RM41.5bn
	($25.2bn)	($4.7 bn)	($12.0 bn)
Issuance from new facilities	RM39.6 bn	RM8.8bn	RM9.6bn
	($11.5 bn)	($2.6 bn)	($2.8 bn)

• The Irish government is planning tax changes to treat the returns on Islamic finance products the same way as interest is treated in conventional products.
  
• Kuwait Finance House says it does not plan on raising additional capital "for the time being" according to its chief executive.