New plans all around, will they work?

Ahem… wow been really working my --- off for the past few days. Well anyways a lot of things have happened between that time. 

For instance Pakistan planned to open 230 new Islamic finance outlets. There has been a growth in demand for Shariah compliant loans and the already existing 500 branches. Smaller enterprises are thriving and trying to expand in this depressed economy and farmers it seems are not effected by what's going on around them. So the demand is probably going to come from those sectors. 

While in Pakistan the Islamic banking branch of the Bank of Khyber (BOK) was formally inaugurated in Rawalpindi. BOK Managing Director Bilal Mustafa speaking on the occasion said BOK was stable despite economic crisis, which shows the confidence of depositors on the bank (I did not know that, now that makes one wonder). 

At the same time two KSA companies have planned to establish a new Sharia compliant real estate finance company. The partnership is between Al-Khabeer Merchant Finance Corporation and Al Mutajra. Dari Home Loans as it will be called will become one of the first real estate financing companies in the Kingdom to specifically cater to the middle income sector. Saudi's real estate finance segment is still in the early stages of development and has been collaborating with the public and private sectors in the development of rules and regulations governing this industry. Did you know 70 per cent of Saudis under the age of 30 do not have a home? (I thought everybody there lives in Palaces).

In Nigeria a bank called The Kwara Commercial Micro Finance Bank is to offer interested customers Shari'ah compliant services. According the mission statement of the bank "KCMB works with its customers in a view of profit sharing (mudharabah), safekeeping (wudiah), leasing (ijarah), joint venture (musharakah) and capital venture (mudaraba)." Features of these financial services include "include no interest and guaranteed return." (Now that's really interesting).

All was not hunky dory and Turkey's launch of bonds designed to appeal to Islamic investors fell flat, raising only a quarter of the $1.16bn the Treasury had hoped for.