Takaful shortfalls, Islamic money markets, Shari'ah scholars

Takaful
Reuters has a fascinating article about takaful and specifically what happens if the policy holders' pool is in deficit. The article highlights a discrepancy between the regulatory view and the Shari'ah view. The regulatory view says that the shareholders of the takaful provider should be responsible for shortfalls (through a letter of guarantee for any shortfall) and the policyholders should benefit from the gain on any investments financed by the shareholders' funds. However, the Shari'ah view, as articulated in the article, says that policy holders should contribute to finance any shortfall and if there is a letter of guarantee but no cash drawn, the shareholders should receive the benefit. This is an issue that I had not spent much time thinking about, although I have acknowledged that the lack of sukuk and other fixed income products have made a shortfall more likely because the funds contributed by policy holders are invested in riskier assets than the premiums paid into conventional insurers (which are typically invested in bonds). There are no specific examples mentioned, which increases the risk to takaful companies and policy holders without significant experience where shortfalls are actually experienced and managed. However, based on the general trend for Islamic financial products to mirror conventional products, I think it is extremely unlikely that policy holders would be forced to make additional contributions to cover a shortfall.

Islamic finance needs money market to grow
Bloomberg has an article with several interesting comments from Mohamad Nedal Alchaar, secretary-general of AAOIFI. In addition to his comments about the need for more Shari'ah-compliant money market products to facilitate better liquidity management, he warned about "overexposure" to a single industry by Islamic financial institutions. His call is welcome given the fallout from the global financial crisis and property boom and bust in parts of the GCC, and it adds to the recognition that Islamic finance was hurt by the global financial crisis but this damage was accentuated by a concentration of investments in a few industries. He also warned that if there is not more done to create a more transparent forum for Shari'ah scholars to reach consensus from an industry body on products where there are no existing fatawa, the industry would remain dependent on a "fatwa-by-fatwa basis". While it is not surprising to hear the head of a standard setting body call for Shari'ah standards to involve an industry body, his point could strike a healthy balance between individual institutions being able to develop new products if their Shari'ah boards approve and the need for greater consensus among scholars through a central forum without requiring what could become rigid standardized fatawa.

Shari'ah scholars
Another article on the development of a younger group of Shari'ah scholars includes a profile of Taha Abdul-Basser, a scholar and the Muslim chaplain at Harvard University. Congratulations to him for being recognized and profiled as one of the prominent younger Shari'ah scholars who will be responsible for continuing the growth in Islamic finance that the senior scholars helped create during the past 35 years.

Other News

• Qatar issued its first local-currency bond of the year yielding 6.5% and sukuk of the year with a $2.75 billion issue split evenly between a conventional bond subscribed by five conventional banks and sukuk, which was purchased by four Islamic banks.
  
• A firm with links in the Middle East is planning to launch an Islamic REIT in Singapore. There is currently one Islamic REIT in Singapore and plans for another later this year.
  
• Four mostly state-owned companies in Abu Dhabi are cooperating to launch a takaful company in the Emirate.
  
• Tabreed, the National Cooling Company in Dubai which missed a payment on its sukuk, may sell conventional or Islamic debt as a part of its recapitalization program.
  
• A Malaysian firm is planning an Islamic gold ETF in the country. There is currently only one Islamic gold ETF, the Dubai Gold Securities. In addition, companies like Bullion Management Group in Canada offer a gold bullion fund that is Shari'ah-compliant.
  
• The CIS has potential for Islamic finance, but there is little legislation in place that enables Islamic finance, according to a summary of a conference in Moscow written by Mushtak Parker in Arab News.
  
• Indonesian sukuk issuance is expected to rise 10-20% compared to last year according to the CEO of HSBC Amanah, Mukhtar Hussain. He said that the Asian economies have had a limited impact from the European debt crisis. Sukuk issuance was $23.3 billion in 2009, which was lower than the peak of $34.3 billion issued in 2007 according to Standard & Poor's.
  
• The Central Bank of Bahrain short-term sukuk al-salam issue was oversubscribed by over 400 percent. The sukuk matures in 91 days and has an expected return of 0.85%.
  
• Khaleej Times has an article on Islamic finance business education.