ABBL

Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) launched the first Sharia’a compliant money market fund in Europe. Using Luxembourg’s Specialised Investment Funds (SIF) law, BLME has appointed European Fund Administration S.A. (EFA) and Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat (BCEE) for fund servicing and custody.

The BLME Umbrella Fund SICAV-SIF, worth over $50’000’000 invests in a diversified portfolio of high quality Islamic money market instruments, such as Commodity Murabaha (exchange contract trade), Sukuk (Islamic ‘Bond’) and Ijara (assets leasing). In order to serve BLME and respond to the significant market growth in Islamic investments, EFA has tailored accordingly its open fund accounting architecture and transfer agency platform while offering specific training to a dedicated team.

Nigel Denison, Head of Asset management at BLME said: “For the first European Sharia’a compliant fund launched by an Islamic bank, we needed a specialised fund administrator and a highly rated custodian bank. We chose EFA’s service offering, with BCEE, for their tailored and specialised platform, which is adaptable to our complex structures”.

Thomas Seale, CEO of EFA said: “Thanks to our specialised teams and their efforts into adapting our platform for Sharia’a Compliance requirements, we are glad to have been a pioneer in the Islamic finance space which is deemed to develop fast. Further, EFA strongly supports Luxembourg’s efforts into becoming a domicile of choice for Islamic finance”. Nigel Denison will present his views on the post-crisis Asset management in the Middle East on Wednesday September 23, at the alfi NICSA Conference in Luxembourg.

About BMLE:

Bank of London and The Middle East plc (BLME) is an independent UK wholesale Sharia’a compliant bank based in London. BLME received FSA authorisation in July 2007 and is the largest of its peers in Europe. It is led by a management team that brings together a combination of experienced international bankers and leading experts in Islamic finance. The four core areas that set the foundations for BLME’s competitive offering are Markets Division, Corporate Banking, Asset management and Private Banking. BLME is dedicated to offering innovative Islamic investment and financing products to businesses and high net-worth individuals in the European, US, SE Asian and MENA regions. To ensure that BLME’s services and operations are wholly Sharia’a compliant, the Bank has a dedicated Sharia’a Supervisory Board (“SSB”). The SSB’s role is to review contracts and agreements relating to all transactions ensuring that they are consistent with the principles of Islamic jurisprudence.

About BCEE:

Founded in 1856, Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg (Luxembourg State and Savings bank), is the doyen of the country’s financial institutions. Today it is both THE Luxembourg bank per excellence and also a full service bank, recognised throughout the world for its results and its reliability. Its sound financial standing, as well as that of its sole shareholder, the Luxembourg State, are the reasons why the international Rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have awarded it ratings of AA+/A-1 and Aaa/P-1 respectively. BCEE is one of the most highly rated financial institution in the world and the best rated commercial bank in Luxembourg. By contributing to the creation of the first Luxembourg-based Investment fund in 1959, BCEE laid the foundation for a promising new business line. BCEE is today an important player in servicing third party investment funds. BCEE received The Banker’s “Bank of the Year 2008” award for Luxembourg, and the “Best developed market bank Luxembourg 2009” award from Global Finance magazine, both for the performance in 2008.

About EFA:

EFA is an independent company specialised in administrating investment vehicles which manages 2,700 funds units worth over €100 billion for more than 215 clients. Working in collaboration with over 80 custodians and 8 prime-brokers, EFA is the leader on the Luxembourg market – the leading European centre for pan-European and global distribution of investment funds – in terms of administrative services offered to third parties. Its range of services notably includes:

− Net Asset Value calculation
− Bookkeeping and portfolio valuation
− Transfer agent and registrar services
− Middle office and order management services
− Reporting solutions
− Risk monitoring & Performance analysis report
− Compliance tools
− Private Equity and Real Estate fund services

Its clients are investors, fund promoters, management companies, insurance companies, custodian banks. EFA is present in Luxembourg and in Paris (EFA France). More information is available on our site www.efa.eu

(Source: EFA)