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SINGAPORE – Islamic finance will likely expand faster than mainstream banks this year, and its total assets will top $1 trillion as demand for ethical investments intensifies, officials said Monday.

However, Islamic financial institutions must guard against straying from the basic tenets of Shariah law if they are to avoid the excesses that led to the global economic crisis, an industry conference in Singapore heard.

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KUWAIT CITY – A Kuwaiti court has granted troubled firm Investment Dar, which owns half of luxury British carmaker Aston Martin, legal protection from creditors, the company said on Sunday.

The Kuwaiti firm, which has more than three billion dollars of debt, applied to come under the emirates financial protection law, which was enacted about a year ago to help companies face the global financial crisis.

The leading Islamic investment firm is the first company to resort to protection under the law.

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KUWAIT CITY – Investment Dar, the troubled Kuwaiti firm that owns half of luxury British carmaker Aston Martin, said Saturday it has filed for legal protection under Kuwaits financial stability law.

“Investment Dar announces today that it has started a process of legal protection under the terms of Kuwaits Financial Stability Law,” a company statement said. The company, which has debts of over $3 billion, said the move aims at pushing through a debt restructuring plan that is backed by more than 80 percent of creditors but is opposed by a minority.

If the request is accepted by authorities, it will halt all legal actions against Kuwaits top Islamic investment firm.

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LONDON: HSBC said on Wednesday it has postponed the launch of its first fund investing in sukuk, or Islamic bonds, after investors were put off by a four-year lock-up period.

“We decided to take some time to redesign the product based on feedback during the marketing phase,” said a spokeswoman for HSBC Global Asset Management, the group’s fund management arm, which would have housed the product. “The lock-in period was not attractive to investors at the time,” she told Reuters.

Investors worldwide were caught out by lengthy or sudden lock-ups imposed by investment managers during the credit crisis, which limited access to much-needed cash. HSBC Amanah, the group’s Islamic unit, had planned to launch the fund in the summer. Despite the postponement, the spokeswoman said it is still “keen” on a fund offering.

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KUWAIT CITY – Kuwaits central bank on Monday decided to appoint a temporary administrator to monitor business at Investment Dar, an Islamic company that owns half of British luxury car-maker Aston Martin.

Central bank governor Sheikh Salem Abdul Aziz Al-Sabah said the monitor will also oversee talks with debtors and the restructuring of the company, which defaulted on some of its debts, the official KUNA news agency reported.

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