Meezan Bank has launched a new consumer financing product that will allow customers to purchase laptops on easy installments. The new product called Laptop Ease is being offered for repayment periods ranging from 3 months to 24 months. The bank will not charge any profit or return for customers who opt for the 3 month or 6 month installment plan. The product has been launched in collaboration with M/s. New Horizon and is available for only HP laptops. M/s. New Horizon will provide two years warranty with parts along with nationwide after sales services at the customers’ doorsteps.

 “Meezan Laptop Ease” through which customers can purchase Hewlett-Packard (HP) laptops, equipped with the latest features under a Halal financing scheme, is another step towards achieving Meezan Bank’s Vision of making Islamic banking the banking of first choice. Through this Riba-free facility, customers will be able to acquire laptops at easy installments for periods ranging from 3 to 24 months.

Laptop Finance is based on the concept of Musawamah which is a general and regular kind of sale in which price of the commodity to be traded is bargained between seller and the buyer without any reference to the price paid or cost incurred by the former. Thus, it is different from Murabaha in respect of pricing formula. Unlike Murabaha, seller in Musawamah is not obliged to reveal his cost. Both the parties negotiate on the price. All other conditions relevant to Murabaha are valid for Musawamah as well.

An MoU for this arrangement was signed between Meezan Bank and New Horizon at Meezan Bank’s Head Office.  Mr. Mohammad Raza, Head of Consumer Banking of Meezan Bank and Mr. Rahim Eqbal, COO of New Horizon signed the MoU.

 Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Raza said that Meezan Bank has an active focus on developing customer-friendly, Islamic alternatives to conventional banking products, in line with its Mission to offer a one-stop shop for innovative value-added products and services to the customers within the bounds of Shariah.

Two Months of Rigorous, First Ever Islamic Finance Training Successfully Completed

What does it take to bring 7 million American Muslims Islamic finance? Maybe training only 100 prominent religious leaders as a small first step. That is what the founding members of the American Islamic Finance (AIF) Project have now successfully accomplished. Jointly founded by Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, Guidance Financial, and the Islamic Society of North America, the AIF Project seeks to promote standards-based Islamic finance among Muslim communities in North America.

The training program began with an inaugural address by Mufti Taqi Usmani, chairman of AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions), the world’s leading standard-setting body. Ethica’s spokesperson said, “Muslims in America rely on their imams for all kinds of information. By giving these community leaders direct training in the practical application of Islamic finance, Ethica now equips them with an understanding of global standards.”

Ethica’s two-month imam training program looks to become an annual event. The program was successfully completed this month after Ethica delivered a rigorous blend of e-learning, including case studies, exercises, and exams, in addition to intensive classroom instruction. With fewer banks and universities opting for face-to-face training, and more institutions adopting the increasingly popular e-learning option, Islamic finance is set to become more accessible to countries outside of the Gulf.

Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance

With over 20,000 paid users in more than 40 countries in 2011, Ethica (http://www.EthicaInstitute.com) is the world’s leading accredited Islamic finance training and certification institute, with more learners than any other Islamic finance organization in the world. Ethica remains the only institute in the world to deliver standardized certification based entirely on the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the leading standard-setting body in the industry.

Guidance Residential

Guidance is the leading US provider of Sharia-compliant home financing with over $2 billion in home financings. It is a subsidiary of Guidance Financial Group, an international company dedicated to serving the market for Sharia-compliant financial products and services. Guidance Financial Group offers unique investment products to institutional investors and financial intermediaries worldwide, and provides financial services to its retail customer base in the United States.

Islamic Society of North America

ISNA is an association of Muslim organizations and individuals that provides a common platform for presenting Islam, supporting Muslim communities, developing educational, social and outreach programs and fostering good relations with other religious communities, and civic and service organizations.

For more information about this article, or to schedule an interview with Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, please e-mailcontact@EthicaInstitute.com.

KPMG has hired Neil Miller as global head of Islamic finance. Miller joins from Norton Rose where he led their global Islamic finance practice and will continue to be based in Dubai, where he has been since 2009.

According to KPMG, ‘Neil has specialised in Islamic finance since he moved to Bahrain in 1995. He then returned to London in 2000 to set up Norton Rose’s Islamic finance group which went on to win numerous industry awards under his leadership, with Neil becoming a highly regarded industry figure internationally.

Miller said, “KPMG’s global reach, vast client relationships and deep industry insights will provide me with an opportunity to identify services and products tailored to the Islamic Finance Industry. This, and the commitment of the senior partners in the firm to the development of Islamic finance, was an important factor in my decision to join KPMG. To prosper and grow, the Islamic financial industry needs to be served by firms that can deliver well researched and designed tools that are Shariah compliant and commercially viable, but also comprehensively consider taxation, audit and accounting perspectives. KPMG already has a strong Islamic finance offering and I look forward to developing this further through its international network.”

KPMG’s announcement comes shortly after Deloitte lost its head of Islamic finance, David Vicary, to Islamic finance education house INCEIF.

Source: http://www.theislamicglobe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=530:kmpg-nets-miller&catid=15:article&Itemid=38

The call to institute a supreme Shari’ah board in the GCC has been taken up Dr. Hussein Hamid Hassan, a leading Shari’ah scholar.

Hassan made the call at a briefing session organized by Dubai’s Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance to publicize its launch of a policy brief on the corporate governance of Islamic financial institutions operating in Dubai.

Hassan said that he believed the industry needed a collaborative body encompassing the leading Shari’ah scholars from across the GCC, in order to streamline the process of issuing Fatwas and help speed up the development of products.

When Hassan was asked by The Islamic Globe, how he judges the Qatar Central Bank’s move to separate Islamic and conventional banking, he answered that this was: “A step in the right direction for more transparency,” as regulators should not be treating Islamic banks like conventional banks. Hassan also telegraphed that an Islamic Banking Academy was on the verge of being set up “in the near future” in Dubai.

Source: http://www.theislamicglobe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=484:leading-scholar-calls-for-supreme-shariah-board&catid=16:article&Itemid=38

DURHAM University will build on its role as a leading UK centre for teaching Islamic finance and business with a new doctoral training centre.

The Durham Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance is a collaboration between the University’s Durham Business School and the School of Government and International Affairs.

Durham has been a centre for research in Islamic finance for over 25 years, with a significant history of PhD study which will enter a new era with the launch of the centre in the autumn. The new centre will build on this success and the international popularity of the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School, which began yesterday.

Professor Rob Dixon, dean of Durham Business School, said: “Due to such exciting and dynamic developments in the Islamic financial and banking sector, it is important that financiers and bankers who are working in the field, or who wish to enter the Islamic financial market, are aware of the principles, operations, techniques and mechanism of Islamic finance and financial products as well as the dynamics of Islamic financial and capital markets.”

Dr Mehmet Asutay, the director of the summer school and a senior member of the new centre, said: “The centre will provide exclusive facilities for research students who have chosen to specialise in Islamic finance, which will enhance Durham University’s long-standing efforts to contribute to the development of academic and intellectual discourse and the practice of Islamic finance.

“It will also support the international reputation and recognition of Durham University.”

Source: http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-business-news/2011/07/05/centre-for-islamic-finance-planned-at-durham-university-51140-28995315/