Islamic insurance providers in the UAE are struggling to generate surpluses amid cut-throat competition and overcapacity, Standard & Poor's warned in its report. The takaful industry must compete directly with conventional insurance companies that …
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on Jordan Islamic Bank (JIB) to ‘BB-‘ from ‘BB’ and affirmed the short-term counterparty credit rating at ‘B’; the outlook is negative. The rating action follows S&P’s downgrade of Jordan in May 2012. As per their methodology, the ratings on JIB are capped at the level of Jordan’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating, because it is the bank’s country of domicile. This mainly reflects JIB’s material exposure to domestic sovereign risk, which indirectly accounts for a significant portion of JIB’s earning assets and equity. JIB is considered to be “moderately strategic” to its parent group, Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group. However, JIB does not benefit from any notches of parent support because of the constraint imposed by the foreign currency sovereign ratings.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has revised the outlook on the long-term sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from stable to positive. At the same time, the long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit rati…
Malaysia is dominating global sales of sukuk in 2013 and Standard & Poor’s forecasts the trend will continue this year. Issuance in the Southeast Asian currency may account for more than 74 per cent of worldwide offerings, compared with 49 per cent in 2008. Global sales of Shariah-compliant notes, including government securities, may exceed US$100 billion in 2013 after rising 64 per cent to US$138 billion last year. Malaysia’s Islamic banking assets climbed 14 per cent last year to a record RM494.6 billion. Moreover, Shariah insurers, or takaful operators, saw assets rise 12 per cent to RM19 billion.
According to a report released by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the sukuk market can expect another few strong years after global issuance of sukuk expanded for the fourth year in a row in 2012. The report “Investors Are Snapping Up Sukuk, Despite Questions About Creditworthiness” points out that there is little to hinder another strong performance by the sukuk market in the next few years. The sukuk market is believed to have the potential to grow and join the mainstream. New sukuk issuance worldwide is expected to exceed $100 billion again this year. However, yields in the region have been declining, and even fell under those on conventional debt.
Standard & Poor’s affirmed the rating of the Islamic Development Bank at ‘AAA/A-1+’. The stand-alone credit profile of the bank is ‘aaa’, which is a reflection of the rating agency’s assessment of the bank’s “very strong” business profile and “extr…
Weqaya Takaful Insurance & Reinsurance was assigned a BBB credit rating with a stable outlook by Standard & Poor’s. Thus, its rating has been reaffirmed. The rating is based on continuous regular surveillance of the company’s performance for th…
Al Salam Bank – Bahrain a leading Islamic financial institution, has recently provided £38 million in a unique Shari’a compliant mezzanine facility to refinance a landmark commercial Property located in the heart of Canary Wharf, the financial distric…
S&P Rating agency says ‘major changes’ is an essential for some companies to pursue better ops management.
Press Release
Saudi Arabia-Based Al Rajhi Bank Upgraded To ‘A+’ On Strengthened Financial Profile;
Outlook Stable
*We consider that Al Rajhi Bank’s strong market position in the Saudi retail market,
superior profitability, growth strategy with solid ca…
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