Winner: Standard Chartered Saadiq
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Chief executive Afaq Khan: impressive development |
These awards are for the banks that had the most compelling story over the past year, not for the biggest or for those that had the most businesses or products. On that basis, Standard Chartered Saadiq edges out HSBC Amanah, the previous year’s winner. Both institutions offer an excellent service and in certain areas, such as takaful provision or fund management, HSBC is better but Saadiq’s overall development over the past year was the more impressive.
Saadiq was involved in several notable transactions, especially in local currency. It led the first Shariah-compliant rupee offering by the Pakistan government; the first sukuk programme to be established by a GCC sovereign; the first ringgit sukuk issued by the Islamic Development Bank; and the first rated dirham-denominated sovereign transaction for the government of Ras Al Khaimah.
Saadiq was also part of the syndicate that helped provide finance to the Ma’aden-Sabic Fertilizer Complex project in Saudi Arabia. The total size of the project is $5.6 billion, with the debt component worth $2.76 billion, including a $1.76 billion Islamic tranche.
Ma’aden, the state mining company, is involved in two big projects – a phosphate mine and an aluminium smelter. Doubts, though, have arisen about the immediate future of the aluminium project in the wake of the credit crunch, with the Saudi government and its partner, Rio Tinto, undertaking a review.
It is unclear if a similar review is being conducted on the phosphate project. Still, none of this should detract from Saadiq’s participation in the financing. The bank also participated in the first-ever project finance deal in Djibouti, for the Doraleh Container Terminal.
In other areas, the bank continued to roll out new products. In foreign exchange and risk management, for example, it launched FX options, profit rate options and structured deposits in the GCC and Malaysia to add to its existing suite of FX spot, forward, profit rate swaps and cross-currency swaps.
In commercial banking, Saadiq launched an Islamic overdraft for corporate customers, a first in the market, based on the Islamic principle of musharaka (profit and loss sharing). In retail banking, Saadiq was the first bank to offer an Islamic credit card in several markets.
In November Standard Chartered announced the launch of Saadiq Berhad, a full-fledged Islamic bank in Malaysia. The UK bank spent M$50 million ($14 million) establishing the business and a flagship financial centre.
As well as providing a range of Shariah-compliant products including corporate financing, retail banking and real estate investing, the centre offers state-of-the-art e-banking facilities.
