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Pakistan’s Islamic retail banking sector is expected to see impressive growth in the years ahead, aided especially by an increase in Islamic mortgage lending as more faith-oriented customers choose Shariah finance when buying or building a home. Pakistan is the second most populous Muslim country in the world and the demand from its 227 million people for Islamic financial services are expanding fast – albeit from a low base.…

Pakistan’s retail banking sector is tapping into demand for Islamic consumer finance from religious-minded Pakistani expatriates via a government-backed digital accounts facility that enables remote buying of a property and a car in their home country.

In September 2020, the central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), allowed the 8.6 million non-resident Pakistanis (NRPs) to open a bank account in Pakistan through a digital and online process, without any need to visit a bank branch in person.…

The proactive move by the mainly Muslim south Asian archipelago of Maldives to boost halal tourism will make this country a larger market for halal-certified food imports. Imported food sold to its permanent population of 540,500 must be halal food under Maldives Food and Drug Authority (FDA) regulations, said Dr Abdullah Shiham Hassan a senior Maldives lawyer and past head of law in the faculty of Shariah law at the Maldives National University: “This is checked and monitored by the FDA regularly.”  …

Transport coatings innovators have been increasingly integrating graphene into their products, as researchers continue to leverage the functionality delivered by a sustainable material whose honeycomb lattice nanostructure offers major durability without adding bulk.

Researchers from Poland’s Gdańsk University of Technology have highlighted graphene’s flexibility and ability to adapt to the “roughness and curvature of the substrate surface” as a boon within paint and coatings design, especially for hard wear and tear uses, such as transport.…

The USA, UK and the European Union (EU) have moved to impose financial sanctions that are unprecedented in scope, as invading Russian armed forces seek to subvert and destroy Ukraine’s democratic government. America’s President Joe Biden announced Russia’s largest banks and financial institution would be banned from using US-based financial systems, and blocked Americans and their companies from lending money to major Russian companies.…

The New York state department of financial services (NYDFS) and the US Federal Reserve Board (FSB) have imposed penalties of USD35 million and USD20.4 million respectively on the National Bank of Pakistan over anti-money laundering (AML) failures. New York superintendent of financial services Adrienne Harris said the bank “allowed serious compliance deficiencies in its New York branch to persist for years despite repeated regulatory warnings.”…

Concerns continue to be raised about the negative impact of the used-clothing trade with sub-Saharan Africa, hobbling the development of the region’s clothing and textile sector, although some experts warn its removal will not be easy.

According to the most recent UN data, the world’s used clothing exports increased from only USD2.5 billion in 2009 to over USD4.2 billion in 2019, noted Dr Sheng Lu, associate Professor at the Department of Fashion & Apparel Studies, University of Delaware, USA.…

The UK is a global money laundering hub with inadequate enforcement and a “deeply flawed” compliance system, allowing British businesses to act as a ‘laundromat’ for suspicious wealth from Russia and other former Soviet Republics, according to the latest report from Transparency International UK (TI-UK).…

The European Union (EU) last night (February 25) agreed a swinging package of sanctions against Russia as its military prepared to assault the Ukraine capital Kiev to press home its advantage in its unprovoked and bloody invasion. In an unprecedentedly swift decision for the EU – within one day of a proposal – foreign affairs ministers on the EU Council of Ministers decided to freeze any assets held in the EU by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.…

Roughly two decades after China entered the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (in December 2001) and nearly two-and-a-half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s textile and apparel sectors seem healthier than ever. Customs data show that in 2021, the cumulative export value of China’s textiles and clothing reached USD315.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%.…