Earlier this month, Scotland hosted the Ethical Finance Summit organised by the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) which organises and coordinates a series of programmes promoting finance for positive change and bringing together leaders in Islamic and conventional finance from around the world. The summit aimed to “help define and shape the transition to a […]
Islamic Fintech Startups in UK
The Islamic Finance Industry holds much promise, with assets expected to reach $3.9 trillion by 2023 according to Thomson Reuters, however, Islamic Fintech is at the very beginning of an exciting, transformative journey for the industry, one still dominated by largely domestic and OIC-based financial institutions. A young, digitally native Muslim demographic that is on […]
The UK has new Master’s programs in Islamic finance
QIB-UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatar Islamic Bank Group, has won the ‘Best Islamic Bank United Kingdom’ award from The Banker Magazine. This is QIB-UK’s fi rst award of that kind aft er a strong fi nancial performance for the year ending 2018. The bank saw its net profit aft er tax increased by […]
Relaunch of UK Islamic Fintech Panel; Al Rayan partners with the broker
Ahead of the UK Fintech Week, the independent group of Islamic finance and fintech practitioners has reconvened under the UK Islamic FinTech Panel (the Panel) chaired by Harris Irfan. The Panel, formed last year, aims to promote the UK Islamic fintech sector and bring together thought leaders to support the development of the sector. In […]
Qatar to establish global finance center in UK university
Several bilateral agreements were signed between Qatar and the UK recently with the most notable being the agreement by the Qatar Central Bank to establish the Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance within the King’s Business School at King’s College London. A membership agreement was signed between the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Innovate […]
Multiple awards and new chairman of Al-Rayan
At the beginning of February, Al Rayan Bank announced the appointment of Simon Moore as the Chairman of its board of directors.Moore replaces Robert Sharpe who is stepping out after four years of chairman’s role. Also serving as the chairman of Cambridge & Counties Bank , Moore was a member of the management board of […]
Record Year for UK’s Islamic Finance
The UK’s Islamic finance sector continued to grow in 2018 despite the economic uncertainty posed by the lack of a trade deal with the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit vote. The country witnessed its largest ever corporate Sukuk issuance and the launch of several new initiatives such as the Islamic Fintech Panel and […]
The UK’s Islamic Mortgage market to heat up
Islamic home-buyers in the UK are set to have more options as the Islamic mortgage market becomes more competitive with Gatehouse Bank announcing new home purchase financing plans on the heels of a record GBP100 million (US$130.53 million) in lending completed last year. To support its growth plans, Gatehouse also announced expansion of its underwriting […]
UK Islamic fintech in the spotlight
Islamic fintech in the UK was in the spotlight with several key funding announcements from MoneeMint and Wahed invest over the past month as well as the hosting of the UK-Turkey Islamic Fintech Forum by the British Consulate-General in Istanbul. Start-up Moneemint, which aims to become “the UK and Europe’s first completely digital ethical bank” […]
New liquidity facility for UK’s Islamic Finance sector
The Bank of England’s (BoE) Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden announced plans for the launch of a Shariah compliant facility to support UK’s Islamic finance sector under a new BoE subsidiary named the ‘Alternative Liquidity Facility’ established specifically for this purpose. The facility will offer non-interest-based source of liquidity and will be the first such facility […]