Thomas Reuters has announced that it now offers a new service catering to the Islamic finance industry, including a gateway that provides up-to-date information on the market, services, and shariah-compliant companies.

“Despite its image as an emerging industry, Islamic finance has now grown to be worth around $1 trillion and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway opens up this world of opportunities for [the] financial market,” said Rushdi Siddiqui, global head of Islamic finance at Thomson Reuters.

According to Reuters, the Islamic Finance Gateway offers detailed information about and links to Islamic finance professionals, rating agencies, industry standards bodies, Islamic finance hubs, index providers, consulting firms, 400 sharia scholars and Islamic subsidiaries from over 25 countries. Market professionals can access comprehensive, multi-asset class information on a wide range of Islamic finance instruments such as sukuks, Islamic leveraged loans, funds, the Islamic money market, takaful and currencies. Publicly listed sharia-based and screened companies and Islamic or commodity ETFs can be traded over the Thomson Reuters Trading for Exchanges (TRTex) platform, which has been integrated within the Gateway.

For the full press release, please click here: http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/tf/tf_gen_business/2010_02_16_islamic_finance

Arabian Business is reporting that a new study conducted by Bank Sarasin earlier this week has concluded that Islamic banks are largely failing to cater to their clients’ wealth management and estate planning needs – pushing them to rely on traditional asset managers.

The Islamic Wealth Management report also commented that Islamic succession planning is in need of an overhaul, as it currently lacks mechanisms to ensure wealth preservation over generations.

For more information about Shariah-compliant estate planning, Islamic inheritance rules, or other related information, please contact info@islamic-finance-blog.com.

For the original Arabian Business story (reprinted from Reuters), please click here: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/585120-islamic-finance-short-on-wealth-management

Canada’s The Province reports that Canada’s biggest banks have still not tapped a growing pool of investors and borrowers sitting on piles of cash or in need of loans. The Province reports that there is a need for Islamic financial instruments, but also, for Islamic and Shariah compliant retail banking.

“We have immigrants who come to us and sit in our offices and tell us they have a million dollars sitting in one of the Big Five banks, in cash,” said Omar Kalair, president of UM Financial, one of the few providers of Muslim mortgages in Canada, to The Province.

The potential market is huge, with the Canadian Muslim population expected to reach 1.5 million by 2017. And, according to The Province, a recent poll indicated that around half of Muslims would prefer shariah-compliant retail banking options.

The Province reports that Guidance Residential LLC, the biggest player in the United States, has provided more than $1 billion in Islamic mortgages. There is currently $2.75 billion invested in mutual funds that comply with shariah. And globally, Thomson Reuters recently pegged the value of the Islamic finance industry at $1 trillion.

Since 2005, UM Financial has provided 500 homebuyers in Canada with $120 million in murabaha financing. And the company recently partnered with MasterCard to introduce the first “credit” card in North America aimed at Muslim consumers. Cardholders must first load up their cards with cash, spending only money they actually own and avoiding interest payments or credit-card debt.

Kalair said to The Province that it is now only a matter of time before UM teams up with a major bank to expand and extend its line of products. “Even though there are limited products and the pricing is high … in the Muslim community, if they were provided an opportunity, they would be ready to switch over.”

For more information on Islamic financial instruments or Shariah-compliant loans or lending, please contact info@islamic-finance-blog.com.

For the original story courtesy of The Province, please click here: http://www.theprovince.com/life/story.html?id=2754081

The Minnesota Daily has reported that the city of Minneapolis is providing Islamic financing and Shariah-compliant loans and lending solutions to Minneapolis businesses. According to the paper, the city of Minneapolis has partnered with the African Development Center to loan funds to Muslim business owners in the local Minneapolis community in a manner that is Shariah-compliant and avoids variable rate interest financing.

Provisions in the loan program, termed the “Alternative Finance Program,” require Minneapolis Muslim-owned businesses to pay a fixed rate of return, similar to an altered version of the “Two-Percent” loans offered by the City’s Department of Community Planning and Economic Development. The Minnesota Daily reports that 38 such loans have been provided so far. The loans have gone to restaurants, retailers, computer, clothing, and bookstores.

Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development Business Finance Director Bob Lind states that he believes Minneapolis is the first U.S. city to adopt Shariah-friendly loan programs. He sees the city’s version as becoming a model for others in the future.

For the original Minnesota Daily story, please click here: http://www.mndaily.com/2010/03/24/loan-caters-minneapolis-muslim-business-owners

For information on Islamic financing or Shariah-compliant transactional products, please contact Ice Miller’s Islamic Finance, Business, and Litigation attorneys at info@islamic-finance-blog.com.