New Resource Bank has partnered with SunPower, producer of the most efficient commercially available solar panels, to provide solar financing for homeowners. The innovative financing can be obtained through a simplified one-step process for homeowners. Homeowners get solar energy by paying a monthly bill that is close to or potentially less than their current electric utility bill.

The program is custom designed to create the lowest monthly cost possible and takes advantages of existing rebate programs and tax incentives. Solar power becomes more accessible and an easier decision because homeowners do not have to re-allocate resources from other investments like retirement savings and stocks and bond portfolios. Since launching the program in December 2006, the bank has received dozens of applications and has approved a number of loans.New Resource Bank has also rolled-out another innovative financing program that provides interest rate discounts and greater loan-to-value to green building projects.

The Bank will provide a 1/8th percent discount on loans to green leadership projects in the commercial or multi-unit residential sectors. Even relatively small projects will enjoy tens-of-thousands of dollars in savings. To provide further incentives for developers, the bank will help boost the financial return of green buildings by providing more ?money.? For example, instead of providing a typical construction loan of up to 75% of appraised value, New Resource Bank will fund up to 80% loan-to-value (LTV) for projects that are designed and built to green leadership criteria as established by the US Green Building Council. However, the bank is open to alternative approaches to demonstrate green design excellence.

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SWIFT has announced that ISO 15022 message standards for the processing of treasury murabaha transactions have been certified compliant with the international Islamic finance standards issued by AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions). This certification paves the way towards the automated processing of murabaha treasury transactions, said to represent 60 percent of all Islamic financing.

Murabaha includes money transfer and commodity trade. While SWIFT has carried the money transfer for many years, commodity trade has been completed manually, usually by fax without any globally agreed standard. SWIFT’s solution uses the ISO 15022 message standards within the guidelines of a murabaha standards rulebook

More than 240 Islamic banks representing 84 percent of global Sharia compliant assets are members of SWIFT. Islamic finance is growing at more than 20 percent per annum, and the demand for Shariacompliant messaging standards is increasing as a result. SWIFT is working with the Islamic financial community to address this demand, both at the level of individual banks, and with organizations such as AAOIFI and AIBIM (the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia).

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