The Costs of Euro and the European Union

Beside of all its synergy, reduction in exchange costs and worldwide prestige there are reasons for which euro skeptics deny the introduction of the Euro, or frankly saying its substitution with their local currencies. They argue the loss of national sovereignty through the centralization of monetary control, the alienation of governments from exchange rate benefits, the mono-objective program of the ECB, the costs of common monetary policy and other defaults that Maastricht Plan is imposing.

For centuries, the currencies of European economies meant more than exchange tools. Their forms, sizes and colors were symbolizing nationalities of their origin and their holders trusted in the words their issuers for its worth against the gold and other currencies. Since their initial usages, the paper banknotes have gained symbolic values together with their monetary worth. Nationalist policies of the politicians have been joined to the currencies. The figures of the national leaders, monuments, and victories were put on the currencies as sources of nationalism. Therefore giving up national currencies and introduction of a new and international one was hard to welcome from this nationalist point of view.

On the other hand, the money printing and the control on its worth are also estranged from national governments. Other than historical usage and emotions, the fluctuation of the exchange rates is an economic maneuver that Euro countries are not free as they used to be before the EMU. The value of the Euro, interest rates and the money supply is determined by the ECB, which is above of all national institutions and free from their control. We will observe the ECB, but we should now focus very briefly on the loss of the exchange rate policies.

Without the exchange rate policy making, economies lost their devaluation and interest rate tools that were securing their competitiveness in the international market. Deciding on the value of their currency, they had an extensive sovereignty on their agents’ purchasing and selling capacity. With the Euro system, even though they need the devaluation of the Euro to compete with other regional giants of the world, many European economies faces the burden that the ECB do not compensate.

In terms of the alienated sovereignty, the ECB is the most important novelty that EMU introduced. Nevertheless, the ECB has more to analyze, such as its independence, its bureaucracy, its unique purpose of price stability.

The ECB, which is an assembly of national central banks in an independent and supranational form, has been located in Frankfurt, the financial capital of Germany. It is independent from governments’ control and trustful in terms its loyalty to its constitution. It is governed by appointed bureaucrats and an executive committee and is closely connected to Brussels. The rule of the entire European monetary economy by a group of non-elected bureaucrats intensifies the dose of euro-skepticism (Giordano, 1998; 71-72). Especially when we think on the current world economy and the role of the financial measure on our welfare, the reduced role for elected politicians is a paradox that European democracies are suffering. The lack of public responsiveness and accountability make democrats more sensitive and reactionary against the Euro.

On the other hand, in the constitution of the ECB, the main concern of the institution is stated as the protection of the price stability. Out of this overriding objective, other issues can be followed but they are doomed to remain secondary. Through the non-inflation figures, the ECB determined its target as a tolerated inflation in the range of 0-2 % (Giordano, 1998; 69). It is a fact that a responsible central bank in an economy must be sensible also for other issues such as economic growth, employment and balance of payments. Yet the ECB lacks or postpone such concerns.

For all monetary unions the main problem is the determination of the Optimum Currency Area (OCA), it is because the non-accordance among members of the union can cause the disharmonies in the policy determination. As a consequence, there would be lower potential of Pareto superior conditions. This is true not only for international monetary unions but also for national unities. Economic agents can be located in different parts of the business cycle, to mean in shrinking, expanding, or stagnant slopes. Then, the appropriate interest rate, money supply and fiscal political choices alter for those agents to cold or to heat the overall economy.

In the EMU barriers, according to the Maastricht Criteria, the monetary tools for balancing the economies are estranged from national institutions. The only option that remains for them is to play with their fiscal tools, but this option is too limited with the criteria as the budget deficit and total debts of governments are limited with strict points.

The disharmony in the business cycle is something that European economies are currently suffering. To illustrate with an example, in the early days of the EMU, the Scottish and German economy were in quite opposite directions. The Scottish economy was over-heated due to a high growth in a very short term. The economy must be calmed down and the conventional tools for this purpose are increasing the interest rates, reducing the money supply in the market or fiscally increasing taxes, reducing government expenditures and reducing subsidies. Among these, monetary tools were estranged and only via fiscal tools the management of the Scottish economy can calm down the economy. On the other side, the German economy was suffering from non-cyclical recession that is articulated mostly after the re-unification costs and increased welfare burdens over the government spending. The unemployment reached intolerable levels and the economy was shrinking due to competitive disadvantages. The solution was the practice of the right opposite tools that we listed for the Scottish economy. Out of monetary tools, the fiscal measures that Germany could apply were blocked with Maastricht Criteria. The fiscal discipline cannot be ceased; the government spending, debt levels and subsidies were all limited with existing criteria. After all, the policy making of the ECB was crucial for both economies and their incompatible demands would be dissatisfied. Furthermore, as we have seen hitherto the EMU system is crisis prone; there remains something to do when economy is expanding but whenever a recession occurs, EMU is not immune to revitalize the needy economy.

These points are not the entire threats of the Maastricht Treaty and EMU is composing. The sanctions that treaty offers are in forms of monetary penalties, in other words, a poor performance economy is punished with a bill when it is in recession that would make it even worse. The disciplinary aspect of the union is hardly to be defended to be rational in this respect.

We analyzed the costs of the Euro and we mentioned about the loss of national sovereignty on monetary and then fiscal measures of the member economies; the business cycle problems that endanger the harmony of the member economies. These all threats can never be thought without the general framework of the world economy on the one hand, and the main political concerns of the EU, on the other.

In the existing world economic paradigms, without any monetary integration, there is still reduced sovereignty on the monetary issues as foreigners in quite open economies mostly determine the value of a national currency. The money inflows and outflows determine the welfare of a country rather than elected politicians. Furthermore, due to complex interdependency in the world economy, regional crisis, such as the East-Asian, Latin and Russian crisis of the last decade, affect the entire world economy. The sovereignty and determinacy by the elected politicians is an obsolete issue. The parities of the currencies are determined not on the political round tables, but on the PC monitors of the individual economic agents. Therefore such criticisms targeting the overall sovereignty issues and the centralized monetary control are nothing but nostalgic exaggerations. 

On the other hand, in terms of business cycles that member economies will suffer from common policy making by a highly centralized central bank, or disabling governments to operate in their economic zone are not a relevant criticism. It is a fact that the EMU system and the Euro should not be considered apart from political concerns. The political gains from such unionization are not our subject but it should be considered that such motivations are prone to encourage politicians to suffer these risks.

Moreover, again for this issue, is that all such disciplinary measures and sanctions are expected to limit the populist expenditures that democracies suffer as well as the efficiency concerns that European politicians are now aware. There are harder rules for the new game, and fortunately the players are keen to play it at any cost, if there really exist any.

 

The Benefits of Euro and European Union

For decades European states are decisively performing integration policies. They constitute new formulas, they interpret existing theories according to their purpose and they build up necessary institutions on the intergovernmental, and more frequently on supranational levels. Especially after the European Single Act, they accelerated integration programs and related institutions increased in number. Through “One Europe”, there exist an increasing enthusiasm; indeed treaties, pacts and summits are more significant than ever. As they get closer to their ultimate goal, the Europeans take the integration issue more and more seriously.

The EMU, a one step ahead of the EMS, should be analyzed under such a framework. It is significantly important in the road through “One Europe” and it matters not only the region that it is put into practice, but the entire world economy. The scale and seriousness of the European Monetary Union, the volume and the prestige of its currency (the Euro) make it different than any other monetary unions that we have in history (Coppel, 1999; 23-26). Needless to say, it has political rational in its background, nevertheless it is open to debate whether the political or economic concerns lead the introduction of Euro, or in other words the abolishment of national currencies which used to be a symbol of national sovereignties. Indeed, the money is one of the strong symbols of the sovereignty.

In the EMU subject, the positive and negative sides of the “Euro”, its threats and opportunities necessitate a SWOT analysis, for member national economies that are in or out of the system. Accounting the costs and benefits of such a radical changeover in their economies, national leaders can agree to join in or to stand away from the EMU project. The ongoing affairs of the EU show us that some countries calculate more benefits than losses and decide for integration, while some others, such as the UK, remain skeptical against the new currency and the EMU. Especially in the UK, the euro-skepticism gathers very lively academic and popular debates that in order to assess the new currency one should scan the British literature for a rich brainstorming on this issue. Among many other oeuvres, in Both Sides of The Coin, B. Hune and J. Furder successfully exhibits doubts on Euro and offer the euro skepticism with all economic, social and political reasons.

The defenders of the common currency in the Euro zone are primarily arguing the exchange and transaction costs of the pre-Euro times. Secondly, they argue the reduction of uncertainties in the international trade and FDIs, thus the proliferation trade and economic cooperation in the continent. Thirdly, they trust in the opportunities of the new hard currency in the world economy, as a challenger of the USD in terms of emission volume and prestige. Very consequently, it is thought that in the age of global financialization and monetary speculations, the Euro is trustworthy due to its hardly challengeable reserves and the ECB’s strict defense on the price stability.

Since the early days of the unionization, there is the desire of promoting the free movement of 4 things, namely people, capital, labor and goods. The background reason for such project is to secure unionization from below, in other words the amalgamation of nationalities, goods and capital in the region. To create the European identity among fellow masses, their interactions are vital to burn the ships through pre-1950 Europe, where war and real politics were dominating their lives. In order to reduce the significance of being German, French, Italian or Austrian, rather replacing it with the “Europeanization”, the national borders and symbols should melt in a common pot.

In terms of eliminating exchange costs and difficulties, there are not big differences between individual households and big companies; EMU covers both with equal respects. In the economic transactions, sides are asking either their local currencies or commonly used hard currencies. This is a fact everywhere in the world. This demand causes avoidable costs and reduces the propensity of trading parties. To illustrate the case, before the Euro, let’s imagine a German traveler with 1000 D-Mark in his\her pocket. S\he was doomed to lose his\her money when s\he exchanged it to Italian, then French, then Spanish national currencies. Without any purchase, just via exchanging his\her money to local currencies on his\her destination, s\he would lose 40 to 50% of his\her initial amount of DM. In other words, the traveler’s money would be evaporated by half for only exchange services. Furthermore, for some occasions it was very hard to exchange the currency, even for a high commission level due to physical disabilities, such as non-availability of exchange offices.

For exporter and importer companies, too, the same problem existed before the Euro. They were asking for hard currencies to trade, thus companies of small economies were suffering the shortage of hard currency, such as USD, Yen, Pound and DM. Considering the exchange costs and its wearing effects on the Europe wide economic transactions, the Euro is rightfully expected to accelerate the economic cooperation in the Euro zone.

It is possible to argue for the employment opportunities that exchange offices were providing. Nevertheless, thinking on the unnecessary costs, increased volume and efficiency we can create new employment opportunities via for example public services. Thus the efficiency criterion would resolve this problem with the elimination of multiple European currencies.

The second pro-euro argument is about the uncertainties avoided with a common and stable currency. In the international trade there is always the risk premium for the float of the payment currency, and this make these transactions a kind of risky investment. For instance, in a French-Italian trade partnership, the devaluation of the French Franc or Italian Lira was a risk reducing long term decisions on price making. With the EMS, the European trade was taken in security of non-elastic bands which were limiting the fluctuation of the national currencies against each other. The limited toleration to the fluctuations constituted a security concern for investors. Thus, the common currency managed by an “impartial” ECB with a premium concern of price stability signifies the highest level of certainty and stability in the market. The EMU, at this point, constitutes a further step of the EMS.

Thirdly, Euro is born into a group of highly developed economies whose synergy created more than their summation. Before the EMU, the DM and the French Franc were among hard currencies of the world economy. They were hardly challenging the USD, but other national currencies such as Italian Lira and Finnish Markka were weak and unpopular in the world trade. The economies of small scale were always subject to hold an important amount of the hard currencies in their reserves to survive. In the total, the Euro is able to challenge the USD and this strength of the new currency can be seen in many aspects.

First of such benefits is the seignorage effect that all hard currencies are supposed to profit. With a very simple reasoning, the hard currency in the market is something highly demanded by worldwide economic actors. In economic transactions, for personal savings and money transfers the Euro is replacing the USD due to its widespread validity and general stability. The demand for Euro increases its purchasing power automatically and people perceive it as a new tool for their investments.

Second benefit of the Euro as a hard currency is comprehensible in the globalization of the finance. Nowadays, there is an increasing tendency of the money wizards to manipulate currencies and to realize incredible gains with daily fluctuations of the money markets. The currency reserves of national governments are easily challengeable by super individuals, such as George Soros who is only the most famous one. These speculators of the globalization age are looking for such crisis and enjoying the instability in small markets.

The UK’s exit from the EMS was a story of this kind. In a day, the British Pound was manipulated and the interest rates quadrupled in a half-day. Through the end of the day, the UK minister of economy declared the British exit from the EMS, but until this time speculators, George Soros was one of them, gained an incredible amount of money. Indeed, the amount lost can be explained as nearly 50 UK Pound from every British citizen. Similar stories were repeated in the Turkish Economy during last decade. Out of the continuous speculations, the interest rates jumped to unseen levels.

The Euro system is securing for every member economies, especially for the small-scale economies, stability and protection from such monetarist speculative attacks due to the huge amount of Euro reserves and its seignorage capacity in all around the world. Indeed, the third benefit of the Euro is related with its importance and prestige in the world economy. As long as people trust in Euro and use it for their investments, savings and transactions the seignorage articulation of the currency is unavoidable. Simply saying, the Euro economies benefit from money printing as its value is stable, and even increasing, in terms of USD Euro parity and general purchasing power of the member economies.

With this framework, the economic benefits of the Euro special to German economy are mostly aroused out of the size and structure of the German industry. Needless to repeat, the German economy constitutes the engine of the union not only in terms of her political spheres of influence but mostly due to her economic giants. She is a leading industrious country, world’s second largest trading nation and third in overall economic performance.

A Brief History of European Union

European issues are coming back to the political economic debates after a half century brake. Through the end of the Cold War, the unionization process of the Europe increased its political and economic significance for the world agenda, thus they returned to the center of the Europe. For centuries, until the First World War, they were the strongest of the World with their huge imperial power and they were controlling remaining parts of the world. When they became dispersed with global level wars, their power was transferred to the USA, the emerging economy of the 20^th century.

The short historical scope shows us the power shifts the leading position in the world affairs, and the only escape for Europeans is to get unionized to counterweight and then dominate others. Their historical experiences enlighten their path; they should move through a united Europe.

The synergy is a very fashioned concept and it signifies the whole makes actually more than the mere summation of individual parts. When parts harmoniously join on a given purpose, they become parts of a greater entity, bigger than they can predict. This synergy notion and the historical experiences can encourage us to invest to the future of the Europe. They come together and they irreversibly institutionalize their togetherness through bolder and wider unification.

When they had started in the early 1950s the purpose was to mutually increase their economic benefits on a strictly limited bundle of goods. The joining was limited with the national interest accounts of members. The economic principles then turned out to be a political impetus to grant the Franco-German hospitality in the future. The union started to organize its upcoming around a core of the greatest members, namely the Germany and France. Indeed, still the power was determining the leading place.

Through the end of the 1980s, when economic recession came to its end and European economies enjoying satisfactory growth figures, they reaccelerated the unionization issue, which had been frozen in the 1960s and 70s. They framed the road of the unionization through clear cut structural reforms and they moved further on institutionalization. The logic was to burn the ships via intensifying the level of represented issues in the union. The more common points they gathered, the more the union became consolidated and the stronger impulse for joining emerge.

By the 1990s, the self-enriching mechanism of the European Community was in practice and it was following self-motivation tools. The Maastricht Treaty, or the Treaty on the European Union was an outcome of such motivations. With the treaty, separate institutions gathered under the EU framework. Moreover a plan of the monetary union, which had been debated for decades, was put into practice.

The three stage process, the Stability and Growth Pact, the introduction of new institutions are steps that we will analyze later. Yet, we should be aware of the general background on the unionization perspective. The point is to remain stronger in the three-level game. From out to in, the core struggle is at the global level to counterweight and challenge the USA; secondly, to get a leading seat in the EU decision making with a regional perspective; and finally to keep the gates of one’s country in the national politics.

A New Marketing Concept: E-marketing

Marketing is one of the most paramount aspects of business life. It is an attitude of mind and also an approach to business problems that should be adopted by the whole organization. It is actually a business orientation based on “the customer is always right”, which has grown and developed into a management discipline over the years.

As far back as 1775, Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, wrote “ consumption is the sole end the purpose of all production and the interests of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. ” in his famous work, The Wealth of Nations. In this statement he has given the essence of what modern marketing is all about. The very word is consumer, as it is the identification and satisfaction of a consumer’s requirements which forms the basis of modern marketing.

There are also other definitions about marketing such as;

Kotler (1980), “marketing is the human activity directed at satisfying human needs and wants through an exchange process.”

Kotler (1991), “marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.”

The Chartered Institute of Marketing, “marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably.”

Mc Carty, “the right product, in the right place. At the right time, at the right price. ”

Palmer, “marketing is essentially about marshalling the resources of an organization so that they meet the changing needs of the customer on whom the organization depends.”

 

All of these definitions are correct, but slightly different. However the basic point is satisfying the customers’ needs and desires by creating products and services.

Therefore, Marketing is a big process where the company tries to satisfy the customers’ requirements and desires. However; it must fit the company’s strategies and all departments must be responsible for it. Basically; marketing depends on selling.

 

Today it is more than selling and all related with price, place, promotions, product, and the other Ps. Although products are perfect, most important factor is to find customers to buy them. Therefore, those points must be occupied in definitions of marketing.

E-marketing:

Today, as the technology changes very rapidly, traditional marketing left its place into online marketing which is being done over the internet. It is also one of the ways of marketing which includes every part of that concept. However the difference is the company’s effort to inform, communicate, promote and sell their products and services over the internet which is called e-marketing (Philip Kotler, 2003)

The internet penetrated popular awareness in the last decade of the twentieth century. In spite of concerns about the privacy and security of information, such as credit card numbers, and fears about reputability of online vendors, consumers have increased the frequency and amount spent on internet-based purchases.

 

E-marketing is also related with e- business and e-commerce. However there are slight differences between them. E-business describes the use of electronic means and platforms to conduct a company’s business. E-commerce is more specific than e-business. It means that in addition to providing information to visitors about the company; its history, policies, products and job opportunities, the company or site offers to transact or facilitate the selling of products and services online. (Eloise Coupe, 2001)

In 2003 the meanings of e-marketing, e-business and e-commerce do not be so much changed such as ; e-marketing means achieving marketing objectives through use of electronic communications technology. Internet Marketing, for its entire mystique, is simply a form of direct response marketing. And the key difference between Internet Marketing and other forms of direct marketing is in the medium. Internet Marketing uses the Web & email. (Mark Sceats, 2006)

As a result the internet offers marketers several benefits that are not available with traditional vehicles for marketing. The internet enables marketers to create flexible information displays, to provide a greater range and depth of information with interactive technology, and to combine the modalities of television, print, and radio into a single presentation of video, text, and sound.

In Porter’s five forces analysis some important points were mentioned which are also related to e-marketing. The idea is based on that a company’s ability to exploit a competitive advantage in its reference market depends not only on the direct competition it faces, but also on the role played by rival forces, such as potential entrants, substitute products, customers and suppliers (Jean – Jacques Lambin, 2000

While doing e-marketing, some potential new entrants can occur. In five forces this point is the most important one. However, there can be possible barriers to entry which are as follows; these are also the advantages can a company has over the other firms which are trying to entry the market by doing e-marketing. (David Jobber, 2001)

·         Multimedia which, through exploitation of the latest technology, customers can use to gain a better understanding of their needs by, for instance, examining 3-D displays of car interiors or selecting the best fabric design for a piece of furniture.

·         Lower prices because it is possible to search for the lowest price available for brands.

·         Lower costs through actions such as replacing retail outlets with an online shopping mall or saving on paper by converting a sales catalogue into an electronic form.

·         Improved distribution because once information-based products such as magazines or software are made available online the company can achieve global distribution without having to invest in obtaining placements in traditional outlets.

·         Relationship building because, via a website, the firm can acquire data on customers’ purchase behavior that can be used to develop higher levels of customer service.

·         Customised promotion, because the firm can develop communications materials on the website designed to meet the needs of small, specific groups of customers.

As a competitive advantage which is the other part of five forces, using of the internet gain some benefits to the companies ( Bocij etc. Al. 2003)

·         Cost reduction; no need for printing and distributing marketing communications material, which is instead published on the web site.

·         Capability; the internet provides new opportunities for new products or services and for exploiting new markets.

·         Control ; the internet and intranet may provide better marketing research through tracking of customer behavior and the way in which staff deliver services.

·         Customer service improvement; provided by interactive queries of databases containing, for example, stock availability or customer service questions.

On the other hand; there are no substitutes available for the internet. Companies cannot use anything else instead of internet. Therefore this is not very important for e marketing. In e-marketing; bargaining power of buyers are more than the bargaining power of suppliers. Because buyers can arrange the conditions, prices and even the distribution ways according to themselves. They can access every company’s websites when they want to buy products or services. Therefore there are lots of choices for them. For instance; in travel industry if someone books his travel before, it becomes cheaper. Customers can also select the type of features most suited to their needs and can decide the price as well. Dell is a good example for that.

E-marketing is very useful while the world is changing and everything is started to be made over internet. When we look at 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) for e-marketing:

·         People buy goods and services for lots of reasons like appearance, function or status. By internet, it is important if this way of marketing provides an opportunity for product enhancement or not such as customer service.

·         Price is the one which creates sales revenue – all the others are costs. The price of an item is clearly important determinant of the value of sales made. When it is online; online and offline prices are sometimes different such as delivery charges. For example Tesco impose a delivery charge for their home shopping service. However, for some items online prices can be cheaper than selling prices in shops.

·         Place is concerned with various methods of transporting and storing goods, and then making them available for the customers and the technology permits continuous trading, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

·         Promotion is the business of communicating with customers. While doing in internet, promotional mix decisions are the design of a company’s website. Everybody all around the world can visit the websites 24 hours whenever they want.

 

Dünyada İslami Bankacılığın Geldiği Son Nokta

Giriş

Dünyada İslamî Finans kurumları ile ilgili çalışmalar ilk olarak 1960’lı yıllarda başlamıştır. Mısır’da bir kasabada 1963 yılında Ahmed en-Naccar tarafından kurulan banka, ilk İslamî banka örneğidir.  1971 yılında Mısır’da devlet desteğiyle kurulan  “Nasr Sosyal Bankası”  ilk faizsiz ticarî banka örneğidir.  1974 yılında İslamî Kalkınma Bankası’nın kurulmasını takiben kurulmaya başlayan İslamî bankalar Mayıs 2013 itibariyle,  yaklaşık 1,5 trilyon dolarlık bir büyüklüğe ulaşmıştır. 2010’da dünya çapında 300 İslami banka ve finans kurumu bulunuyorken, bunların varlıklarının 2013 yılı itibariyle 1 trilyon dolara ulaşacağı öngörülüyordu. Bu gün itibariyle ise bu rakamın fazlasıyla üstüne çıkıldığı görülmektedir.

Türkiye’de Katılım Bankacılığı

Günümüzde Türkiye’de dört Katılım Bankası faaliyet göstermektedir. Bu bankalar 5411 sayılı bankacılık kanununa tâbidir.  Ayrıca bu bankalardaki hesaplar TMSF güvencesi altına alınmıştır. Katılım bankaları 2005 yılında yapılan düzenlemeden sonra hızlı bir şekilde büyümeye başlamışlardır. Katılım bankalarının aktif toplamı 2012 yılı sonu itibariyle yaklaşık 70 milyar TL’ye ulaşmıştır. Aktiflerin bankacılık sektöründeki oranı 2005 ve 2012 yılları arasında % 2.60‟dan %5.35‟e yükselmiştir. Yine aynı dönemde katılım bankaları şubeleşme konusunda hızlı bir gelişme göstermiş; 2005 yılında 290 olan şube sayısı 2012 sonu itibariyle 829‟a ulaşmıştır.

Malezya’ da Katılım Bankacılığı

Malezya İslamî finans konusunda önde gelen ülkelerdendir. Ülkede konvansiyonel bankacılık ve İslamî bankacılık paralel olarak gelişmiştir. Ülkede 2012 yılı itibariyle İslamî bankacılığın büyüklüğü sektörün %20’sine ulaşmıştır. Bu oran İslam ülkelerinin toplamında yüzde 12 düzeyindedir.  Ülke ayrıca sukuk konusunda da diğer ülkelerden ileridedir. 2012 yılının ilk 9 ayında dünya genelinde ihraç edilen yaklaşık 130 milyar dolar değerinde sukukun 100 milyarlık kısmı Malezya tarafından ihraç edilmiştir.

İran’da Katılım Bankacılığı

İran İslami Finansın en büyük merkezlerinden birisidir.  Ülkede bankacılık sektörünün tamamı İslami Finans kurallarına göre yapılandırılmıştır. İran’da 2011 yılı itibariyle bankacılık sektörünün yaklaşık 390 milyar dolar büyüklüğe sahip olduğu tahmin edilmektedir. Bu rakam dünyadaki toplam İslami Finans varlıklarının %40’ının İran’da bulunduğunu göstermektedir. Ülke bu büyüklüğe paralel olarak en büyük İslami Bankalara ev sahipliği yapmaktadır.  “Bank Melli İran”,  “Bank Mellat”  ve  “Bank Sederat İran”  başta olmak üzere dünyadaki en büyük on İslami Bankadan yedisi İran’da faaliyet göstermektedir.

Hong Kong’da Katılım Bankacılığı

Hong Kong’da İslamî Finans işlemleri 2008 yılından itibaren hız kazanmıştır.  Bu dönemde Malezya merkezli şirketler tarafından ihraç edilen sukuk senetleri ülke borsasında işlem görmeye başlamış ve aynı yılda ülkede Arapça Şeriat ve İslamî Finans alanında eğitim vermek üzere İslamî İlimler Enstitüsü kurulmuştur. 2012 yılında Hong Kong hükümeti tarafından İslamî Bono ihracına yönelik kanuni düzenlemeler hazırlanmaya başlanmış ve hazırlanan yasa teklifi 2013 Ocak ayında meclise sunulmuştur.

Körfez Ülkeleri’nde Katılım Bankacılığı

İslamî Finansın en çok geliştiği bölge olan körfez ülkeleri özellikle son yıllarda bu alanda merkez olma çabasındadır.  Bölge ülkelerinde İslamî finansın bankacılık sektöründeki payı  %20’nin üzerindedir.  Suudi Arabistan  %35 İslami Bankacılık oranı ile bölgede İslami Finans’ın en çok geliştiği ülkedir. 2012 yılında ihraç edilen sukuk sertifikalarının yaklaşık  % 20’si bölge ülkeleri tarafından ihraç edilmiştir. Ayrıca son yaşanan global kriz sonrası finans sektörünün gündemine gelen İslamî Finans’ın gelişimi sürecinde, başta Katar ve Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri olmak üzere Körfez Ülkeleri bu alanda bölgesel güç olma amacıyla çalışmaktadırlar.

İngiltere’de Katılım Bankacılığı

İngiltere İslamî Finansın batı ülkelerindeki merkezi olma amacı taşımaktadır.  İslamî finansın ve bankacılığın bu ülkede tarihi 1960’lara değin gitmektedir.  Fakat kavramın öneminin tam olarak anlaşılması 1990‟lı yıllarda Bank of England’ın başına  Lord  Eddie George’un  gelmesiyle  olmuştur.  İngiltere’nin İslamî Finansın önemli oyuncularından birisi olmasının iki önemli sebebi bulunmaktadır: Bunlardan ilki, İngiltere’de 1990‟lı yıllarda yerleşik yaklaşık 1.75 milyon Müslüman’ın İslamî Finans ürünlerini talep etmeleridir. İkincisi ise, Barclays Bankası’ndan Andrew Buxton’ın, Gatehouse Bankası’ndan Richard Thomas’ın ve HSBC Bankasından Iqbal Khan’ın bu konuda liderlik etmesidir. Tüm bunların yanında, İngiltere Hükümeti İslam dünyasına olumlu yaklaşmıştır.  Yapılan yasal düzenlemelerin ardından ülkede 21 banka İslami bankacılık hizmetleri sunmaya başlamıştır. Günümüze gelindiğinde, Mart 2013te İngiltere Ekonomi Bakanlığı bünyesinde bir ekip oluşturulmuştur. Ayrıca 2013 yılı itibari ile 34 milyar dolar değerinde sukuk Londra Borsasında işlem görmektedir.  Bunun yanında, Qatar Islamic Bankın  (QIB)  sahibi olduğu Islamic Bank of Britain 2004 yılından beri İngiltere’de hizmet vermektedir. Bu gelişmeler ışığında İslami Bankacılığın gelecek yirmi yıllık dönemde yıllık  %3.4 oranında büyüyeceği tahmin edilmektedir.

 

Endonezya’da Katılım Bankacılığı Hamlesi

Güney Asya’nın en büyük ekonomisi olan Endonezya, Dünyanın en büyük İslami Bankacılık piyasası olan Malezya’ya yetişebilmek için kendi İslami finans endüstrisini geliştirmenin yollarını aramaktadır. Bu girişim, 2009 yılının ilk çeyreğinde satışların yüzde 9 düşmesinden sonra İslami Bankacılık sektöründeki gelişmeyi desteklemek için gerçekleştirilmiştir. Uluslararası İslami Finans Marketi’ne göre 2008 yılına kadar 8 yıl içerisinde İslami Bankacılık sektörü 111,9 milyar dolara ulaştı. İslami Bankacılık sektöründe tedavüle sokulan bu paralar gelişmekte olan bu sektöre yön vermeyi amaçlamaktadır. Endonezya’nın İslami bankacılık varlıkları 2009 yılı sonu itibari ile toplamda 8 milyar dolarken, Malezya’nın faizsiz bankacılığa uygun şekildeki bankacılık değeri 93 milyar dolar olup bu miktar sektörün yüzde 19,6’sını oluşturmaktadır.

 

Hazırlayan: Muhammed Oral