Welcome to the last issue of November, and as the year draws ever closer to its end, IFN continues to bring you the latest news and most innovative features from the industry around the world. This week, our cover story explores one of the most interesting concepts to hit the market: the complex and challenging issue of Shariah compliant Coco bonds, which could provide an intriguing new avenue for liquidity management – but whose high risk profile could also represent a dangerous temptation for unsophisticated investors.
Our IFN reports continue with the theme of risk and reward, exploring at the slow but sure trajectory of Islamic repos; along with a look at a new look at an old favorite in the funds industry, the latest player in Pakistan’s Takaful sector, Indonesia’s latest gambit in its Islamic finance strategy, our weekly round-up of sovereign Sukuk, and much more. Our case study covers the US$6 billion IPO from National Commercial Bank, while our inhouse analyses explore the importance of technology and trace the latest developments in South Africa.
Our IFN correspondents this week come to you from Nigeria, Turkey, Malta, Pakistan and Azerbaijan; while we also bring you special reports on Sukuk from Farmida Bi of Norton Rose and Shariah compliant contracts from Hussein Kureshi of OCBC. Our country focus this week is Japan with features from Etsuaki Yoshida of JBIC and Tareq Rahman; while Barry Cosgrave of Shearman & Sterling and Abdulbasit Ahmed Al-Shaibei of QIIB discuss current issues in liquidity management.
As the markets stir themselves up into a final flurry before the end of the year, we wish all our readers a productive passage into the last month of 2014.