Dear All,First of all we would like to extend our sincere gratitude for the warm reception and the extensive feedback received following the first edition of Opalesque Islamic Finance Intelligence (OIFI).
Our maiden issue (available here) saw OIFI building a readership of well over 2,000 and this only solidifies our commitment to explore industry-specific content, encourage critical discussions and lively interaction. All of which we resume in this our second installment, where we explore the specifics of Shariah scholars and Shariah boards.
It is the most essential question for practitioners and non-practitioners alike: how do you achieve Shariah compliance? While there is no clear cut answer we run through a Shariah Compliance Toolkit that delves into the mechanics of engaging Shariah advisors, the existing business models, procedures & timelines, agency & monetary costs, as well as some recent developments.
Our Featured Resource section sheds further light on various Fatwa databases and search engines that are useful in specific areas of research.
In this issue, we explore how the manufacturing process has fared in this regard in the Featured Structure section, highlighting some of the recent entries into the landscape of Islamic products (such as CPPI vehicles and other structured notes).
We further focus the attention on the perspective of the boutique (or more specifically the perspective of a non-Islamic financial institution) as it pertains to creating and developing solutions. Our Allocator Interview examines the experience of Amiri Capital in putting together a Shariah compliant platform and the challenges faced in bringing products to market.
While we have dissected exotics, even the most vanilla of contracts isn’t exempt from scrutiny, as we look at the intricacies of modern murabaha contracts in the Lexicus Islamicus column. Moreover, differing opinions on this and other instruments have reignited the debate of whether Shariah boards (and their approval process) should rest within financial institutions or at the country level, with the Discussion Board opening the floor to industry voices.
Finally, from these various inputs we probe the outputs as well - surveying the bad habits of Islamic fund managers in our Industry Snapshot section.
Once again we welcome your comments & suggestions, and please check the archive of Opalesque Islamic Finance Briefing which is now available online here providing a free historical data bank of industry news (over 3,300 articles) as well as back issues of OIFI. It's all there, it's all free.
New subscribers can set up their Opalesque subscriptions here.
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