CIFA

22/03/2023

Wishing everyone a Ramadan filled with abundant blessings 🕌🕌🕌

16/03/2022

Our heartiest congratulations to our Managing Director Shabnam Mokhtar for her appointment to the Shariah Committee of AIA Public Takaful. Wishing you all the best 💕

08/10/2021

Congratulations Shabnam Mokhtar for your appointment as the SC-OCIS visiting fellow for 2021/22.

We look forward to your research on and .

28/09/2021

Shariah Rules for Cryptocurrencies Made Easy

Assalamu'alaikum and a good day everyone.

Check out our summary from a superb discussion by AP Dr. Aznan Hassan on and rules.

First, he summarized the rules relating to in Shariah. Why does this matter? If its money in Shariah (which gold and silver are) - you cannot sell it on a deferred basis for a profit. Wanna trade it for SPOT, no problemo 😉

Then - he discussed three assets classes and summarized important take-aways:

a. - are subject to currency trading rules. He also highlighted common Shariah issues with conventional FX trading platforms.

b. - a shareholder is an owner of a company. So this is Shariah neutral. What needs to be done is the activities and the financial structure of the company. You are free to trade as you wish - spot, deferred, at any price.

c. - the key to understand Shariah requirement relating to is to examine what does the cryto represent?

i. Commodities backed crypto - if the commodities are gold and silver - they are viewed as currency and subject to rules of currency trading. Cyrpto backed by other commodities are considered as non-monetary asset and you are free to trade.

ii. Central Bank issued cryptocurrency - these are accepted as money in Shariah and subject to rules of currency trading. There are no differences of view among Shariah scholars on these.

iii. A privately issued Cryptocurrency - this is where there are differences of opinion among Shariah scholars. Some allow it, while others forbid it.

Among those who allow it - there are some that view these as currency, while a smaller group view crypto that are not backed by gold, silver or other currencies as non-monetary asset. Thus you are free to trade it on spot, deferred and any price.

Scholars that forbid cryptocurrency have different reasons - not a legal tender, volatility, and how it may be mis-used. Commonly these scholars cite the principle of سد الذرائع : blocking of means - to forbid it i.e. even though the underlying is not haram, they'd like to close the doors to negative impacts from the underlying.

In short, if you are dealing with a crypto - ask this: what does it really represent. You gotta use a look through approach to examine the underlying.

If you understand Malay, we highly recommend watching the original discussion here: https://youtu.be/cgBVuP-08ac

The Shariah Advisory Council of Securities Commission Malaysia has issued a resolution relating to Cryptocurrency. Check it out here: https://www.sc.com.my/development/icm/shariah/resolutions-of-the-shariah-advisory-council-of-the-sc (click on resolution 233 and 234 issued on 29/6/20 and 29/7/20).

12/07/2021

Heartiest congratulations to our Group EVP .mokhtar for her appointment to the Examination Review Committee of the Accounting & Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI)

03/04/2021

Archegos Capital blew up and Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal! What do these have in common?? Family offices and shipping are growing beyond the system’s capacity.

Did you know:

1. Family offices, like Archegos, are worth nearly USD6 trillion which is about 30% of the US Economy. Yet this sector is unregulated?

2. For the past three years, there has been a 40% increase in the number of family offices. Some of it are driven by Hedge fund owner-billionaires setting up their family offices. Find out why?

In this series Mohamed Iqbal, the Treasurer of Kuwait’s Warba Bank and Shabnam Mokhtar, SHAPE’s Group EVP simplify the Archegos debacle.

Find out why Archegos used a swap structure for its leverage. How does a Margin call work? Why would a margin call cause a meltdown?

Iqbal also draws a parallel between the Ever Given Ship incident in the Suez Canal and the Archegos chaos.

Tune in and join us for a simple, fun and eye opening discussion!

https://youtu.be/lGYe2UQH1gY

Archegos Capital blew up and Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal! What do these have in common?? Family offices and shipping are growing beyond the system’s ca...

01/04/2021

A snapshot of discussion between Mr Mohamed Iqbal, the Treasurer at Warba Bank in Kuwait and our Group EVP Shabnam Mokhtar on two major developments in the global market over the past few weeks:

The stuck in the Suez Canal and the debacle. What do they have in common?? Both sectors are growing so fast that it is hitting pressure points in the system.

Tune it for the short premier. The full interview is coming soon.

26/03/2021

Enjoy a short article by our Group EVP Shabnam Mokhtar on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Although it sounds bombastic, Shabnam made it easy to understand:

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computers that can think like human...in short: smart machines 😎

How do computers think? Just like human use our brains, computers rely on their engines. These engines basically run mathematical calculations! These are some engines that enables AI:

1. Expert System (ES): human experts tells the machine what the rules are, the computer executes these rules...the basic of automation or computers behaving like the experts.

2. Machine Learning (ML): human provide data and the computers learns patters from the data and DETERMINE the rules. So computers are able to “think” like human.

3. Deep Learning (DL): a more powerful version of ML. The computer can handle complex scenarios and tonnes of data to determine the rule.

Read the article for further examples including a snippet from the comedy Mrs Maisel, where the father, Prof Weissman, a genius mathematicians, was listening to his grandson’s potty songs so he can teach his computer to sing 😁

Have a blissful weekend everyone 🤓

Published: March 26, 2021. What is Artificial Intelligence? A simple definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is: machines/computers that can think i.e.

24/02/2021

Assalamu'alaikum and a Good Day everyone

Did you know that conventional banks in the US may offer supply chain Murabahah (installment sale)?

Arcapita, a Bahraini Islamic Investment Bank, has been active in the US private equity market since the 90s.

In 1998, Arcapita approached UBK - The United Bank of Kuwait (the predecessor of AUB- Ahli United Bank) to develop a supply chain financing product based on Murabahah.

The OCC (the regulator for national banks) approved Murabahah for supply chain and real estate finance.

The approval was broad enough to allow the banks to buy directly from the exporter if they have a firm order from customers. With this approval, banks may offer LC Murabahah or local financing without LC.

Join us to find out how this works. https://learning.consultshape.com/courses/islamic-finance-in-usa

19/02/2021

Assalamu'alaikum and a very good day everyone.

The perception is that there is not much development of Islamic Finance in the US. In reality, the US is a vibrant market for Islamic Finance. The US legal and regulatory frameworks are remarkably flexible. Without changing laws, thoughtful bankers have put Shariah principles to work in the American context.

Join us to examine the development of Islamic Finance in the US across different sectors - cross border investments (real estate & private equity), home finance, banking and capital markets.

Did you know that the US has a concept called a Redeemable Ground Lease in some state laws? This has existed since the 1920s and became popular in the 50s.

In the 90s, our Group CEO, Mr Abdulkader Thomas, in cooperation with Committee for Islamic Home Finance (CIHF) structured Ijarah Muntahiyya bi tamleek (IMBT) or a lease to own product in the US based on the Redeemable Ground Lease concept.

Find out how this works, and how United Bank of Kuwait (UBK - the predecessor of Ahli United Bank - AUB) then obtained OCC’s approval to make it into a banking product in the US.

Check out our full course here: https://learning.consultshape.com/courses/islamic-finance-in-usa

23/01/2021

Check this out...a town came together to tip an amazing pizza delivery guy.

15/11/2020

Thank you Islamic Finance news for inviting our Group EVP Shabnam Mokhtar to moderate the IFN Halal Forum on Nov 3.

Enjoy the summary that she prepared and visit the full replay for a lively discussion!

I had the honor to moderate the IFN Halal Forum on Air 2020 on Nov 3. The Halal industry’s potential market size is estimated at USD38 trillion.