Bank Islam, RealRewards tie upFebruary 15 2007THE country’s oldest Islamic lender Bank Islam expects a tie-up with the RealRewards loyalty programme to help boost its women savings account’s deposits by RM50 million by the end of the year, bringing the total to RM75 million.The bank is teaming up with RealRewards to market its Syariah-compliant financial products to the loyalty programme’s 2.6 million customers. Starting with the so-called Pewani Women’s Savings Account, the bank hopes to roll out the customer loyalty programme to all other segments in stages and expects the plan to be fully implemented by the middle of this year.Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd general manager of consumer banking, Faizah Khairuddin, said the bank initiated the RealRewards programme in response to the rapidly changing banking landscape where more banks are offering Islamic banking products and foreign banks are entering the market.”Banking products based on Islamic banking principles are increasingly popular as they are seen to be fair and equitable for both consumers and banks, while cutting the risk for consumers,” Faizah said after signing a partnership agreement with Electronic Commerce Technology Sdn Bhd, the manager of RealRewards, in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.She said the Pewani account has huge untapped potential as the product, which was started in 1999, has only attracted 5,600 account holders so far. Moreover, about two-thirds of the account holders have savings below RM1,000.”We aim to move these customers to a higher deposit level by rewarding them for saving more,” Faizah said.Under the plan, women who open Pewani savings accounts and existing customers who maintain a certain minimum balance in their accounts will earn RealRewards points. Depositors who save more will earn extra points.Faizah said the tie-up with RealRewards will also allow Bank Islam to extend its products to the non-Muslim market. The Pewani account only has a negligible amount of non-muslim customers currently, while RealRewards has a balance membership profile with half of them being non-Muslims.Depositors who save more will earn extra pointsCourtesy: btimes.com.my————————–Islam Muslim Islamic banking finance insurance marriage clothing fashion software qurban Makkah & Madinah.

Staff ReportDubai: Salama Islamic Arab Insurance Co. (IAIC), the word’s largest Islamic insurance operator, yesterday reported a 65 per cent jump in net profits to Dh181 million last year compared to 2005, a statement said.Saudi IAIC, a subsidiary of Salama, has obtained a licence to commence operations in Saudi Arabia. The new company is expecting 40 per cent of the company’s capital to be offered for subscription next month.Salama has established new companies such as Saudi IAIC and adding family takaful activities (life insurance) in the UAE, Algeria and Senegal.Salama expects substantial growth during the next five years in the global takaful and re-takaful industry, which is currently valued at $1.7 billion, to reach $7.5 billion to $10 billion, making it one of the fastest growing sectors of the financial services industry.Shaikh Khalid Bin Saqr Al Nahyan, Salama chairman, said in a statement, “Our company has presented a distinguished performance since its shares were listed for trade on the Dubai stock exchange one year ago.”The remarkable success was not limited only to the launch of the first IPO, but we have also a 96 per cent majority shareholding in the Takaful & Retakaful International Investment Co. (TARIIC) of Bahrain, and the total equity of BEST Re, the largest re-takaful company in the world.”The company has started family and health takaful operations not only in the UAE but also in Algeria through the Algerian subsidiary.Saudi IAIC has added health takaful to its activities in Saudi Arabia.A subsidiary has been set up in the Senegal to offer family takaful. This company is in addition to Sosar which is also a subsidiary in the Senegal.The company has also contributed towards raising the capital the Jordanian Islamic Insurance Co., a joint-stock company whose shares are traded in the Amman stock exchange, in which Salama owns 15 per cent.The company recently increased its capital by 100 per cent to eight million Jordanian dinars.Courtesy————————–Islam Muslim Islamic banking finance insurance marriage clothing fashion software qurban Makkah & Madinah.