Yuri Barmin Analyst on Russia and its Middle East policy presents a great overview of the current state of affairs of the development of Sharia compliant financial sector within Russia and the CIS. The double push by Russian banks to enter into Islamic financial markets, initially during the global financial crisis in 2008 and most recently since 2014 due to the imposition of EU sanctions, as wel... »
VTB Capital has helped arrange a $500 million sukuk for UAE based property developer Damac (NR/BB/NR). The sukuk issued in the name of Alpha Star Holding III Limited drew demand of around $1 billion and was priced at a profit rate of 6.25%. The issuance came in tighter than its initial price guidance of 6.5% and will be used to repay Damac’s USD650m sukuk due in 2019. Primary Sukuk Market The prim... »
Kompanion Invest provides Sharia-compliant financial services in Kyrgyzstan. »
Authored by Dmitry Savelyev, the Duma Committee Deputy Chairman on Financial Markets, the bill seeks to separate and recognise sale and lease arrangements. Current legislation whilst not prohibiting two agreements (lease and sale) does not recognize these transactions as a leasing therefore "accelerated depreciation" (provided by the Tax Code) is not applicable to such products and as a result doe... »
Tatarstan and Sberbank have signed an agreement for cooperation in the field of Islamic financial services which envisages considering and making proposals for the development of the Sharia compliant financing in the republic. »
Language skills and local knowledge from Azerbaijan are better suited to assist Russia. »
Laws, in particular Tax Laws need to be updated to accommodate Islamic products as tax neutrality between Islamic and conventional products needs to be neutral. »
Speaking on the side-lines of the Tunisian Investment forum, Linar Yakupov, President of Association of Regional Investment Agency of the Russian Federation, as well as President of the Islamic Business and Finance Development Fund stated Russia is seeking more cooperation between OIC countries and regions of the Russian federation. »
Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) has signed an advisory services agreement with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (“IDB”), in order to process and support its conversion to full Shariah compliant operations. The ICD will dedicate seven key teams across the full conversion process: including in the area... »
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) observer member Russia continues to make inroads in developing its Islamic finance industry. »
