Secara reguler saya mendapatkan berita pendek (online) dan Majalah tentang keuangan syariah dari Islamic Financial News (Malaysia), saya kira berita-berita pendek itu cukup baik untuk diketahui teman-teman pemerhati ekonomi-keuangan-perbankan syariah. Semoga bermanfaat.
Dear Ali Sakti,
While global markets struggle to pick up the pieces from what has been dubbed “the worst economic crisis in decades”, the Islamic finance industry was dealt a blow when Standard & Poor’s revealed that more than US$5.6 trillion had been wiped off the value of Shariah compliant equities worldwide during the third quarter of 2008.
However, it added that Shariah investors had benefited from their lack of exposure to financials, which have been the focus of the market selloff. Its Index services vice president Alka Banerjee said: “While equity markets around the world have experienced a tumultuous quarter, Shariah investors continue to be shielded to some extent by the exclusion from their portfolios of financial stocks and other highly leveraged companies, which do not satisfy the strict compliance criteria associated with Islamic law.
”Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services had also revised its outlook on six banks in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to stable from positive, which included Islamic banking giant Kuwait Finance House, citing the less supportive environment in which they operated from as a factor.The financial turmoil has boosted perception of Islamic finance, which is now being considered by many Western countries including the US and even Australia. It was reported that the US government was studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis.
Prominent Egyptian-born, Qatar-based cleric Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi told participants of a recent conference to take advantage of the financial crisis to create a Shariah compliant economic system. “We have all the wealth... the Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil and we have an economic philosophy that no one else has,” he said, alluding to the fact that Saudi Arabia holds a substantial portion of the world’s proven crude oil reserves.
The head of theological studies at Doha University shares Sheikh Yussef’s view, saying the global economic meltdown shows the need for a radical and structural reform of the global financial system. He says the system based on the principles of Islam offers an alternative that can reduce risks.On the flip side, others say that although interest, derivatives and short selling are forbidden under Shariah law, which means that Islamic financial institutions were not burdened any subprime loans, hedge funds or credit default swaps, investing in halal finance would not be a shield against a global financial or even economic crisis.
Our country reports focus on Japan, where the private sector has shown its full commitment to the growth of the Islamic finance industry. The government has now realized the potential of attracting petrodollars from Middle Eastern investors and government officials and industry practitioners are diligently studying Islamic finance.
The first of two market reports paint a dreary picture for Islamic investors saying they were not immune from stock market crashes while Monem Salam, in the other, urges the industry to avoid similar disasters by analyzing the failings of conventional finance instead of displaying a false sense of pride.
“Do not boast. Do not be negative. Show your strength with value-added products,” he advocates.
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Best regards,IFN team
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