UKIFC and Church of Scotland to Celebrate the Launch of the Edinburgh Declaration
Faith and finance leaders from across the globe will come together at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh on 23rd October 2018 to celebrate the launch of the "Edinburgh Declaration", to be officially unveil the Declaration at the Ethical Finance 2018 Castle reception on 22nd October.
Driven by a mutual desire to move towards a fairer, more responsible finance system the initiative aims to bring together the best of our respective faiths to build a shared values framework (Edinburgh Declaration) which can be used to underpin the development of a commercially viable ethical finance solution open to all in society.
In order to identify and articulate the shared values a series of workshops were held bringing together theologians, leading industry practitioners and well-informed faith-thinkers, to explore and debate faith reflections on ethical finance and economics.
The first workshop, held in Edinburgh in May 2016, reflected upon the historical perception and trajectory of an ethical economy in the two faiths. The session explored the theological perspectives and philosophical underpinnings of Christianity and Islam.
The second workshop, hosted by Lord Sheikh in the House of Lords in October 2016, explored the shared values in ethical finance amongst the faith traditions within the context of the present commercial world. As well as perspectives from theologians and religious leaders we also had contributions from leading asset managers, banks and economists who provided insights on different types of economic models where ethical finance can deepen the economy, encourage inclusion and create positive social impact.
A draft Declaration was developed as a direct output of the first two workshops and supplementary conversations with the third workshop providing an opportunity to present, and critically appraise it.
As a final step the draft Declaration was shared with a number of other faith groups with all feedback collated and integrated into the final document.
The Declaration will provide the guiding principles that underpin the formulation of a financial product or service open to all in society regardless of religion or ethnic background. As we prepare to embark upon a research and development phase we ask any individuals and organisations interested in supporting this to please get in touch.
The celebratory dinner will provide an informal opportunity for contributors to reflect upon the journey so far and consider what the future might hold.
For further information please contact omar@ukifc.com
UKIFC launches Ethical Finance 2018 Conference
UKIFC is pleased to announce that we are working in partnership with Responsible Investor, RBS Scottish Government and United Nations Development Programme on Ethical Finance 2018 which will take place in Edinburgh on October 22-23rd 2018.
The conference will bring together an expected 300 delegates from the ethical, faith and mission based investment community as part of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative.
The event will explore how trust in a sustainable economy can be revitalised, and how banks, fund managers, faith and endowment investors are confronting today’s biggest societal and economic challenges, notably as part of the United Nations SDGs.
To find out more and to register please CLICK HERE.
UKIFC Hosts Ethical Finance Round Table Looking at Governmental Strategies for Sustainable Finance
The 16th Edinburgh Ethical Finance Round Table took place in the offices of Baillie Gifford on Monday 18th June 2018. The focus this time round was on government policy comparing the Scottish Government approach and the approach being taken in Ireland.
The first speaker was Karen Rodger, who is the Scottish Government’s policy lead in the areas of financial services and fintech. Karen began by emphasising that the Scottish Government very much saw its relationship with the financial sector in terms of a partnership. The overall target is inclusive growth, i.e. creating opportunities for increased national prosperity which will be distributed fairly. At the heart of the Government’s route to achieving this is the “National Performance Framework”, which explicitly aligns all Government policies and initiatives with the UN SDGs.
Examples of specific initiatives include the establishment of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), in which the Government is committed to investing £2bn over the next 10 years, aiming to leverage further capital from the private sector, and the Financial Services Advisory Board, set up in 2005 as a public-private collaboration and which now includes in its strategy the “National Partnership for Social Impact”. Most recently the Scottish Government has also established “Fintech Scotland”, with the ambitious aim of making Scotland one of the global top five centres for fintech (it currently ranks 15th).
Finally, Karen reminded the group that the Government had demonstrated support for its work in providing the initial funding for the Ethical Finance Hub, now established within the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University.
The second presentation was given by Stephen Nolan, the CEO of Sustainable Nation Ireland (SNI). SNI had come about in partnership between the public and private sectors as a tool towards sustainable development. Its overall aim is to position Ireland as a hub for sustainable finance, while working to attract co-investors in the move towards a decarbonised economy, which to achieve by 2030 it is estimated will require €50bn. Later this year the Irish Government would be launching its “National Development Plan for Ireland”, to which it was committing €22bn. The current overall size of the “green finance” market in Ireland was estimated at €28bn, including infrastructure and other investment funds, equities and green bonds.
An exciting new development was SNI’s role in establishing and running a new European project to bring together 30+ centres crucial in channelling capital to enable the transition to a low-carbon, inclusive and sustainable economy. The EU-FC4S Hub is the mechanism to make this happen and, on account of its role in the development of both sustainable investment policies and carbon reduction strategies, Edinburgh has been chosen as the first city to engage with.
A number of question and comments came from the floor, including an extended discussion on financial education and how best to engender the necessary skills in the financial workforce, on which Karen Rodger raised the possibility of developing specialised financial apprenticeships. Stephen Nolan made the point that the major changes that decarbonisation entailed would inevitably produce winners and losers and that governments had to be alert to addressing the consequences. Participants raised the interesting issue of how to develop better overall frameworks for city development, as opposed to simply proceeding by way of individual infrastructure projects. Stephen Nolan pointed to the Irish Strategic Investment Fund as having some success in this area while Karen indicated she saw SNIB as playing a part in improving the Scottish picture.
The meeting concluded with an update from Omar Shaikh on forthcoming events of interest, including a ethical finance conference scheduled to take place in Edinburgh in October. He also introduced Jamie Ervin, visiting from the UN’s Development Programme, who gave a brief introduction to their work and the current exploration of a possible partnership between their team and the Ethical Finance Hub.
Please CLICK HERE to access the round table slides.
Ramadan Mubarak!
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is one of the most important months of the year for Muslims. It is the month that Muslims the World over are enjoined to fast from dusk until dawn, primarily to reaffirm their connection with their Creator and attain a higher awareness of life by detaching from the norms and cycle of daily life, as well as increase their empathy with those, for whom fasting is not a choice, but a necessity.
The month is a time for increased spiritual reflection and prayer, as well as to abstain from gossiping, lying, envy, greed and other bad traits of character. Muslims are also encouraged to be even more charitable than usual, and typically increase their charitable donations to help those less fortunate.
The Holy Quran describes Ramadan as:
“The month of Ramadan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey – then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that [to] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.”(Sūrah al-Baqarah, Chp2, v.185).
Muslims believe there are many benefits to this blessed Month. One such example given by Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh):
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Every good deed of the son of Adam will be multiplied. He will receive ten-fold to seven-hundred-fold reward for a good deed. Allah the Glorious and Majestic has said ‘but fasting is exceptional, for it is done for Me [Allah] and I will give reward for it [Personally], since one abandons his passion and food for My sake. There are two occasions of joy for one who fasts, joy when he breaks it and joy when he meets his Lord; and the breath (of an observer of fast) is sweeter to Allah than the fragrance of musk.” (Related by AI-Bukhari and Muslim).
The UKIFC would like to take this opportunity to wish all people Ramadan Mubarak (Greetings) and a happy, healthy and prosperous month.
UKIFC Deliver an Islamic Finance Course in Edinburgh
The positive convergence of ethical and Islamic finance, coupled with the demand from a wide range of industry stakeholders keen to develop their knowledge and understanding in these overlapping areas, has led the Ethical Finance Hub to launch a unique and flexible executive education summer course offering in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Despite the remarkable recent growth of ethical and Islamic finance there remain few academic or professional courses that provide practically-focused pragmatic training.
The 3 day "Islamic Finance - An Ethical Alternative", an intensive practical Course designed, developed and delivered by the UKIFC, will begin with a comprehensive introduction to Islamic finance, its ethical foundations, core structures, and creation of Islamic banking products. It will then offer practical guidance in creating enabling regulatory frameworks, particularly within a secular context, before exploring the nuances of Shariah compliant asset management. The Course concludes with a session focused on the legal, mechanics and trends within Islamic finance real estate transactions.
The course will take place at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University Monday 25th June 2018 - Wednesday 27th June 2018. with the 2 day "Ethical Finance and Investment Paradigm" takes place over the following two days.
For further information and to register please click HERE.
'How Ethical is Islamic Finance' Thematic Workshop a huge success!
We are pleased to announce that our Thematic Workshop with the International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA) in association with K&L Gates had a great turnout and was a huge success. There was a lot of passion, energy, provocation and engagement with the topics. More details about the thematic workshop will be published soon.
UKIFC facilitates inaugural APPG meeting
The UKIFC facilitated the inaugural All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamic finance meeting on Monday 20th November.
The meeting was hosted and chaired by Lord Sheikh, Baron of Cornhill and co-chaired by Baroness Uddin. The meeting was dutifully attended by key stakeholders from the Islamic finance sector, including practitioners, experts, academics, financial institutions, law firms and Shariah scholars. Amongst others were representatives from the UK Department for International Development (DfID).
The meeting raised a number of discussion points, and it was fascinating to hear from tenured industry leaders about the challenges that they face. Lord Sheikh was keen to capture the issues and proposed solutions, then raise them with the appropriate government departments to see how the issues can be best addressed.
UKIFC's Ethical Finance Round Table explores the role financial institutions can play in meeting UN SDG's
The 14th Edinburgh Ethical Finance Round Table took place on Monday 13th November 2017 for the first time in the offices of Baillie Gifford, who will be hosting the series for the next 2 years. The topic for the meeting was the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the role the financial sector can play in making them a reality.
The first presentation was given by Fran van Dijk, one of the founding partners of One Stone Advisors, who are leading consultants in the field of sustainability, operating principally in the UK, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. Fran reported that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have increasingly become a focus area for their clients in recent times, both seeking to map their own strategy against the SDGs and, in some cases, going beyond that to seek to link and adapt their strategies to make a positive contribution to meeting the goals.
A major challenge in achieving the SDGs by their target date of 2030 will be finance, much of which will have to come from the private sector. However that will bring many opportunities too both in generating revenue from change (estimated at a possible $12 trillion) and in creating jobs (estimated at a possible 380 million). Fran then gave a number of examples of businesses which together or in partnership were actively contributing to progress – these included Triodos Bank, BNP Paribas, which was developing the "Solactive" index, and the World Benchmarking Alliance lead by Aviva, which was seeking to develop a comprehensive SDG benchmark over the next 3 years.
The second presentation was given by Lee Qian of Baillie Gifford, introducing their "Positive Change Fund" in which he played a leading role. The strategy of the Fund is to invest solely in companies making a positive contribution to social or environmental challenge, while continuing to deliver attractive returns. The Fund had only recently been launched and currently stood at a level of £12 million but it was hoped in time this could reach a value of up to $10 billion.
The view underlying the investment strategy was that companies in this category will prosper in the long-term, so this is very much a "patient capital" approach. The management of the Fund operates by way of intensive internal analysis, focusing on the intention, business practices and product impact of the companies in question. The SDGs form a useful framework for measuring the last of these aspects and also provide a means of communicating and reporting on the impact achieved to investors.
The discussion was then opened to the floor.
One question which was raised was whether there was a danger of the SDGs becoming merely a "box ticking" exercise or whether they were actually stimulating new investment. In response, Fran van Dijk agreed that it was essential that the impact of investment should be closely assessed against the SDGs – in her view the forthcoming Aviva benchmark should help in this.
It was noted that as yet the UK was one of the countries which had not yet formulated its policy in relation to SDGs and it appeared that the government was seeking contributors to put together chapters on each of the individual Goals. It was suggested therefore that it might be a suitable project for the EFRT to collaborate on one of the chapters in question.
There was some comment that for certain sectors the SDGs may appear to be framed in too general and high level way. Nevertheless the view of the presenters was that they could still form a very useful starting point for any company's strategy.
The Purpose of Wealth - Community Awareness Day in Glasgow
The Islamic Finance Council UK is pleased to bring to you this community awareness day, supported by Al Rayan Bank, National Zakat Foundation and Islamic Relief, on the critically important theme of 'wealth'.
The events will focus on two topics:
- Understanding Islamic mortgages; and
- How to calculate zakat
The events will feature stalls, interactive workshops and presentations by Al Rayan Bank, National Zakat Foundation, Islamic Relief as well as discussions and short lectures by leading scholars. The event is free, open to all and light refreshments will be available.
TO REGISTER FOR THE EDINBURGH EVENT, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
For more information, please contact: info@ukifc.com
UKIFC External Shariah Audit Report highlighted by The Telegraph
UKIFC Advisory Board Member, Omar Shaikh was quoted by The Telegraph in London on 15th October, in an article entitled "Can the UK make the most of sukuk, the Islam-compliant bond?". The article briefly explores the history of sukuk and the 2014 UK issuance. The article also reflects on the application of English law of contracts and the Dana Gas case, currently being heard in London. The article picked up on our External Shariah Audit report, citing that since its publication, the Central Bank of Bahrain, State Bank of Pakistan and the Central Bank of Oman have introduced or implemented these standards.
Click here to read the article.
Click here to access our External Shariah Audit report.