Is "Al-Dar Islamic Fund", created by Pictet, a Geneva based Private Bank, Islamic compliant?

Résumé du document

Who has created the ?Al-Dar Islamic Fund'? Is it Pictet which is a Geneva based Private Bank which is in compliance with the Islamic culture? The answer to this buzzing mind boggling question is ?No'. As confirmed, the contained shares are not Islamic compliant and secondly the targeted profile (Islamic investor) has been misunderstood. With these two assumptions, a series of questions follow. Why? And what should have been done differently to fit into the culture of the Islamic investor? Firstly, we have tried to determine what were the cultural mistakes committed by Pictet. Secondly, we have determined the differences between the non-Islamic and the Islamic investor. Finally we arrived at the definition of a matrix that is to be used when creating an Islamic compliant financial instrument. The conclusion of this paper is that cultural differences are not only raised because of human direct interactions, but as a result of elaborated instruments or services rendered to each other. In a nuclear world where trade is widespread, proposing an Islamic cultural compliant fund should be made with more cultural analysis and not only in view of a pure financial approach or a basic Islamic image compliancy test. The focus should be on transitioning the local mindset to accept diversification and to think in terms of global development especially when rendering services for a multinational Private Bank. Therefore, Private Banks should use a different approach rather than actually putting themselves into risky situations that could turn out to be sensitive and controversial towards multicultural issues. This approach is unacceptable especially in a bank wherein, the financial approach should be computable in terms of reputation, money and loss.

Extraits

[...] The global Islamic basis is dominating the local Islamic diversity. Profile France The tolerance to non-Islamic bias in the investments is possible. The non-Islamic country where some Islamic investments diversity could be proposed. The Pictet fund could be proposed in France. Implication: management has to determine all diversity of Islamic specifications and propose adequate investments for each population. The global non-Islamic basis is tolerated by the local Islamic diversity. Profile USA The tolerance to non-Islamic bias in the investments is more than possible. [...]

[...] Is “Al-Dar Islamic created by Pictet, a Geneva based Private Bank, Islamic compliant? Executive Summary Is “Al-Dar Islamic Fund”1, created by Pictet, a Geneva based Private Bank, compliant with the Islamic culture? The answer is no. The contained shares are not Islamic compliant and secondly the targeted profile (Islamic investor) is misunderstood. Those two issues bring the following questions: Why? And what should have been done differently to fit to culture of the Islamic investor? First of all, we tried to determine what the cultural mistakes done by Pictet are, in a second step, we determined the differences between the non-Islamic and the Islamic investor and finally we defined a matrix to be used when creating an Islamic compliant financial instrument. [...]

[...] Four cultures, one religion or four different approaches through one additional dimension compare to nonIslamic investor Results Table Matrix of Islamic investor results TR Percentage of Islamic religion in country14 Distance to first Islamic country Branches of Islamic religion Local cultural diversity to Islam Local Banking structure Local Institutional structure Local Economical Education Political and economical Islamic alliances Tolerance to non-Islamic cultures Profile A B C D Middle Low High Middle to High Strong Strong Strong Distant Middle to High Low High High Diversified Laic and Islamic Islamic Diversified Diversified Middle Close Close Far Close Various Close Little Close Various High Various 75-100% 75-100% 5-25% IR FR USA Islamic Laic Laic 14 Bibliography : Anne-Laure Dupont (2005) 11 Profile Turkey The tolerance to non-Islamic bias in the investments is possible. The Islamic country where some Islamic investments diversity could be proposed. The Pictet fund could be proposed in Turkey. Implication: management has to determine the limits of acceptable bias to portfolio content. The local Islamic diversity is dominating the global Islamic basis. Profile Iran The tolerance to non-Islamic bias in the investments is not possible. The Islamic country where no Islamic investments diversity could be proposed. The Pictet fund could not be proposed in Iran. [...]

[...] Interest is based on the premise “money is a commodity”. Lack of knowledge / gharar prohibition: To avoid any dispute due to unfairness in dealing caused by the lack of knowledge. This covers fraud, misrepresentation, undue influence, duress, non-disclosure of material facts, etc. Gambling / Maysir prohibition: It is a zero-sum game wherein it just transfers the wealth not creating new wealth. Selling or leasing or investment in non-halal items: more of religious and ethical value consideration or public policy. [...]

[...] The global non-Islamic basis is tolerated by the local Islamic diversity. The global non-Islamic basis is accepted by local Islamic diversity. The actual bearish trend of Qatari stock exchange on 14.11 .200615) is evidencing that non-Islamic investors are taking profit of the Islamic compliant companies by using speculation and manipulation; therefore a niche is emerging locally to satisfy those who will loose faith in the local stock exchange, through more Islamic compliant investments http://www.ameinfo.com/financial_markets/Qatar Figures and Table Figures Figure Islamic Sphere Figure Investor profile Models Table Table Matrix of Islamic investor results Bibliography Anne-Laure Dupont (2005), Atlas de l'Islam dans le monde: Lieux, pratiques et idéologie Autrement Daniel Kahneman (1998), Aspects of Investor Psychology Princeton University Dr. [...]