Saleh Kamel Fund for Young Entrepreneurs - and Qutbist Terrorists?

This is How Zakat Funds Work and How Salifiyyah - Qutbists fund their projects:

Watch this process


Dallah Albaraka Donates Ten Million Riyals To The Centennial Fund

The Signing Ceremony Was Attended By The Governor Of The General Investment Authority (SAGIA) And Deputy Chairman Of The Trustees Board Of The Centennial Fund. Mr. Omar Abdallah Al-Dabbagh

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - August 10, 2008: NRH Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Abdallah bin Abdul-Aziz,

Consultant of Custodian of the Two Holly Mosques and Chairman of the Trustees board of the Centennial Fund signed in Jeddah last July with Mr. Abdallah Saleh Kamel, C.E.O. of Dallah Albaraka Group an agreement whereby the Group donates through its social responsibility programmes the amount of ten million riyals for the establishment of a special fund under the umbrella of the Centennial Fund, in the name of "Saleh Kamel Fund" for the support of young entrepreneurs.

The signing ceremony was attended by the Governor of the General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and Deputy Chairman of the Trustees board of the Centennial Fund. Mr. Omar Abdallah Al-Dabbagh.

On this occasion Mr. Abdallah Saleh Kamel said in a statement that the agreement stands as a further assurance to the Group's feeling of responsibility toward the community and its desire for fostering the culture of entrepreneurship beside standing as a proof of our confidence in the mechanism of the Centennial Fund which realized within so short period of time a remarkable success and eventually acquired the ISO 900l.

According to this agreement:

• Dallah Albaraka shall have a priority in establishing offices for distribution and collection of applications,
• The Centennial Fund pursues all other arrangements in the following three steps:

First Stage: Acceptance and evaluation of applications.

At this stage personal interviews shall be conducted with the applicants to make sure that they are really serious in establishment of projects and that the projects are quite viable.

Second Stage: Evaluation of Applications

In the light of the result of this verification the committee shall decide on the applications and, in case of acceptance of the projects

Third Stage - Provision

further steps shall be taken with regard to provision of facilities and assistance to viable projects.

PressReleaseNetwork.com

Iranian Banks Beat US Sanctions by Linking to Smaller Banks

Iran gets around US bank sanctions

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Bank Mellat, Iran’s third largest state-owned bank, is getting around US-imposed sanctions by establishing links with small and medium-sized banks that have less US exposure than bigger lenders, its managing director said.

Ali Divandari told the Financial Times that US sanctions had failed to prevent the bank’s “links with the international brokerage network”, adding: “We managed to quickly replace other banks.”

EDITOR’S CHOICE

• Syria and Iran consider joint bank - Oct-13
• Georgia fall-out casts shadow on Iran talks - Aug-25
• US warns Turkey over energy deal with Iran - Aug-14
• Russia denies sanctions deal after Iran snub - Aug-06
• Obama camp signals robust approach on Iran - Jul-01
• Iran says offer is acceptable ‘in principle’ - Jul-02
  

The US in October imposed unilateral sanctions against three of Iran’s commercial banks – Melli, Saderat and Mellat – to choke off Iran’s access to dollar financing and the US financial system.

Analysts say financial sanctions have hit Iran harder than the United Nations-imposed sanctions, which are largely restricted to nuclear- and missile-related activities and people involved in such activities.

“The US sanctions initially had a negative impact on the bank’s reputation and created troubles, but in practice there was no halt in our operations,” Mr Divandari said. “We are now working with important international commercial and correspondent banks on a daily basis . . . including European, Asian and African ones.”

He declined to give the names or nationalities of the foreign banks concerned. But he said the number of banks working with Mellat had increased under sanctions, because the big international banks that had withdrawn or scaled down ties to safeguard their interests in the US had been replaced by small and medium-sized banks with less US exposure.

“This economy has its own attractions, even under the worst conditions,” he said.
Western diplomats agree that Iran’s financial transactions have continued but stress that they have been much more costly, troublesome and time-consuming. Such difficulties, they say, have further hindered big investments in the country.

France and Britain recently joined the US in alleging that Iranian banks were involved in illegal nuclear activity and in financing terrorism. Iran denied the charges.

• The European Union has been seeking financial sanctions outside the UN and has banned Bank Melli, Iran’s largest commercial bank, from operating on its territory since June.
• The EU has also warned financial entities that doing business with Iranian banks will be carefully watched.
• Bank Mellat has six branches outside the country, including one subsidiary in London called Persia International Bank, which still operate.

“It will be troublesome if Europe imposes unilateral sanctions on Iran’s banks, but we will be able to again replace the outgoing banks,” Mr Divandari said.

He warned the foreign banks that if they left it could be difficult for them to return.
There have been no foreign lenders in Iran since the 1979 revolution, when all banks were nationalised. However, big international banks have had representative offices, which have been scaled down or shut during the past two years because of sanctions.

Mr Divandari said Iran’s market could not be ignored. “Domestic investment on its own cannot meet the country’s needs, which makes Iran an opportunity for foreign banks, particularly as investment banks – not retail banks – to function as gates in attracting foreign investment.”

He reckoned the capital turnover for foreign banks could be as high as 40 per cent, almost double the rate in Europe, should they decide to enter the Iranian market.

He also urged foreign banks and companies to join his bank’s imminent privatisation programme despite sanctions, and reminded them of Iran’s geopolitical significance and enormous energy resources.

The Rest @ FT.COM

What is Money Laundering?

Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source, and/or destination of money, and is a main operation of the underground economy.

[ this can be done in any financial system, including Western or Islamic ]

In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government regulators (such as the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) to encompass any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act, which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting.

As a result, the illegal activity of money laundering is now recognized as potentially practiced by:

• Individuals,
• Small and large businesses,
• Corrupt officials,
• Members of organized crime (such as drug dealers or the Mafia),
• Even corrupt states, through a complex network of shell companies and trusts based in offshore tax havens.

A few examples of money laundering are smurfing or kiting.
The increasing complexity of financial crime, the increasing recognized value of so-called "financial intelligence" (FININT) in combating transnational crime and terrorism, and the speculated impact of capital extracted from the legitimate economy has led to an increased prominence of money laundering in political, economic, and legal debate.

The Rest @ Wikipedai

How a Hawala Works

In the most basic variant of the hawala system, money is transferred via a network of hawala brokers, or hawaladars.

• A customer approaches a hawala broker in one city and gives a sum of money to be transferred to a recipient in another, usually foreign, city.
• The hawala broker calls another hawala broker in the recipient's city, gives disposition instructions of the funds (usually minus a small commission), and promises to settle the debt at a later date.
• The unique feature of the system is that no promissory instruments are exchanged between the hawala brokers; the transaction takes place entirely on the honor system.
• As the system does not depend on the legal enforceability of claims, it can operate even in the absence of a legal and juridical environment.
• No records are produced of individual transactions; only a running tally of the amount owed by one broker to another is kept.
• Settlements of debts between hawala brokers can take a variety of forms, and need not take the form of direct cash transactions.

The Rest @ Wikipedia

In addition to commissions, hawala brokers often earn their profits through bypassing official exchange rates.

• Generally the funds enter the system in the source country's currency and leave the system in the recipient country's currency.
• As settlements often take place without any foreign exchange transactions, they can be made at other than official exchange rates.

Hawala is attractive to customers because it provides a fast and convenient transfer of funds, usually with a far lower commission than that charged by banks.

Its advantages are most pronounced when the receiving country applies distortive exchange rate regulations (as has been the case for many typical receiving countries such as Pakistan or Egypt) or when the banking system in the receiving country is less complex (e.g. due to differences in legal environment in places such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia).

Furthermore, the transfers are informal and not effectively regulated by governments, which is a major advantage to customers with tax, currency control, immigration, or other legal concerns.

For the same reasons, governments do not favor the system, and accusations have been made in recent years that terrorist funding often changes hands through hawala networks.

Al Rowad Financial Services PLC

Interesting Company to Watch



Rowad Means "Pioneers".

Al Rowad Financial Services PLC

A brokerage company at Khartoum Stock Exchange (KSE). It is the second established public company working in this field.

The Chairman of the company Mr. Abdul Rahim Hamdi twice Minister of Finance and National Economy of Sudan.

• He established a number of banks in Sudan, and propagated a bank in the United Kingdom.
  The General Manager Dr. Hamid Al Amin, a banker, ex-manager of department of corporations in Khartoum Stock Market and Feasibility Studies and Research department manager in Al Igbal Consulting Company
  
• SDG 350,000,000 on 31 of December 2007
  
• Contact Us
  Tel +249 183 777222
  Fax +249 183 777116
  
  info@rowad.sd