Islamic investing represents a 1.2 trillion euro market. Now one Malaysian firm wants to bring the trend to Germany. Others have tried and failed before, so it could be a struggle.

Confident and professional, the female chief executive of Malaysia-based CIMB-Principal recently gave a press conference in Frankfurt about the only registered Islamic investment fund in Germany. 

Members of the governing council of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), the prudential and supervisory standard setting body for the global Islamic financial industry, and delegates have started converging here for the two-day board’s 9th annual summit starting Wednesday.

Central Bank of Turkey is hosting the event for the first time. 

The government of the Australian state of New South Wales, home to the country's financial capital Sydney, will send a group to Dubai this week to discuss ways to develop the Islamic finance industry, officials said.

The delegation, led by New South Wales premier Barry O'Farrell and including financial services professionals, will explore regulatory and legal issues at a roundtable discussion with the Dubai Export Development Corp on Tuesday.

Qatar, world’s biggest natural gas exporter, is planning to issue Islamic bonds “Sukuk” for the first time ever, as it has sent a request for proposals to banks and is close to mandating arrangers, report said on Wednesday.

“The sukuk is expected sometime in the second quarter, before the summer break”, the sources said.

The Islamic Development Bank plans to raise up to $1 billion by issuing a sukuk, a spokesman for the bank told Reuters on Wednesday.

Asked about media reports quoting IDB president Ahmad Mohamed Ali as saying the Jeddah-based multinational lender plans to raise between $500 million and $1 billion through a sukuk, the spokesman said: "That's true."

A national council of Islamic economy has been founded in Tunisia with the aim of facilitating the development of the country’s Islamic financial system.

The council, whose board has 28 members, was officially launched on Thursday, May 10, businessesnews website reported.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has mandated five banks for an Islamic bond, or sukuk, due to be issued at the end of May, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The lender has picked HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Emirates NBD, Deutsche Bank and itself for the deal, the sources said, requesting anonymity.

One of the sources added the sukuk was likely to be a benchmark-sized, five-year issue. Benchmark usually means at least $500 million.

Bahrain plans to issue a sovereign bond by the summer, its central bank said on Tuesday, a sign that the Gulf country is confident it can draw international investors despite ongoing social unrest and budgetary pressures.

A year of clashes between protesters from the Shi'ite majority and security forces has weighed on the small non-OPEC oil exporter, eroding capital parked in its mutual funds, while fiscal handouts have raised the average oil price the kingdom needs to balance its budget to near-market levels.

Indonesia's shariah banking sector has been growing 40.2 per cent annually over the last five years, outpacing conventional banking's annual growth of 16.7 per cent over the same period.

Halim Alamsyah, deputy governor of the central bank, Bank Indonesia, expressed confidence that shariah banking would comprise 15 to 20 per cent of the country's banking industry in 10 years, from 4.1 per cent currently.

Islamic banking is expanding by an increasing number of segments of traditional banking. Microfinancing has become the next area of expansion of Islamic finance.

IDB Vice-President (Operations) Boubacar Sidibe stated that IDB will actively follow up the mandate to expand the Islamic microfinance industry and offered to support innovation and research in the field as a means to fighting poverty in IDB member countries. He urged to create a knowledge platform accessible to everyone.