Islamic finance conferences in Malaysia and South Korea

There are a number of articles about the "Contribution of Islamic Fiannce Post Global Financial Crisis" conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday:

• "5 ways to widen Islamic finance's acceptability," Business Times
  
• "Changes to Capital Market Services Act to be enforced next month," The Star Business
  
• "Raja Nazrin: Islamic finance crucial to reform global finance rules," The Edge Malaysia
  
• "Changes in Act to strengthen Shariah Advisory Council," Bernama
  
• "Bank Muamalat: Islamic finance on steady growth path," The Star Business
  

Qatar Islamic Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Woor Investment & Securities Inc, a South Korean investment firm, to cooperate on Shari'ah-compliant investments. A conference was held in Seoul on Islamic finance and sukuk and if legislation is passed soon, the first South Korean corporate sukuk could be issued in late 2010.

Other News

• Dubai has only tapped $500 million of its $2.5 billion loan from Abu Dhabi government-owned bank Al Hilal bank.
  
• SEI breaks down the performance differences in 2009 between the MSCI World and MSCI World Islamic.
  
• Islamic financial institutions now have $822 billion in assets according to the Saudi Arabian central bank governor Muhammad Al Jasser.
  
• Kazakhstan is planning to issue Islamic bonds this year.
  
• An Expert Council on Islamic Economy was formed in Tatarstan in a meeting organized by islamic-finance.ru.
  
• The governor of the Central Bank of Syria spoke at the 5th Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions conference held in Damascus about many of the issues (risk management, liquidity management and prospects for financing infrastructure projects) that have been at the forefront recently.