The National reported today that banks in Dubai will within six months be able to report bounced cheques directly to the police, and that the system could eventually be used nationwide. The usual technical details are being ironed out, but once they are resolved it will be much easier for financial institutions to deal with cases of rubber cheques. And since the offence is punishable by prison sentences, make sure you stay on the right side of the law.

Based on anecdotal evidence, there are a fair number of expat Americans living in the UAE at least in part over concerns about health care - that it's either too expensive back home or not available because insurance companies won't cover those with pre-existing conditions. For those folks, today's vote by the US House to reform the existing system is likely good news, even if some will be disappointed the legislation did not go far enough. The fiscal ramifications of the bill will not be clear for many years to come but some consumers will notice changes within months. The New York Times has a good break down here of what the changes are and when they will go into effect.

Bad news this week for British expats who retired to the UAE.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that British pensioners who retire here (as well as most other non-EU countries) are not entitled to inflation-linked increases that they would have received if they had never left their home. Those who never move to another country have their pensions periodically "up-rated" to adjust for the rising cost of living.

The upshot: British expats planning to retire in the UAE should make sure they are not making unnecessary contributions to the National Insurance Fund, says Keren Bobker, a financial planner with Holborn Assets in Dubai. Many expats make voluntary contributions to the fund in order to qualify for the maximum pension when they retire.

But because their pensions will be frozen, those expats may want to consider investing that money instead in a vehicle that will grow over time in order to keep up with inflation.

The case was first brought against the UK government in 2002 by Annette Carson, a British resident who retired to South Africa. She argued that she should be entitled to the same rights as a UK resident who spent the same amount of time working in the UK and made the same contributions to the National Insurance Fund.

The government countered that she made a voluntary choice to live in a country with a distinct economy and paying her the "up-rate" would be an inappropriate use of public funds.

Kuwait's The Investment Dar (TID) is arguing in a London court that it does not have to pay back $10.7 million to Lebanon's Blom Bank because the deal, inked in 2007, was not Shariah compliant. TID, the troubled investment firm that owns half of the high-end car maker Aston Martin and is close to a $3.5bn debt restructuring, is an Islamic company guided by Shariah principles that forbid collecting or charging interest, among other strictures.

The story is alarming on a number of levels, not least of which is what such a legal argument could mean for Islamic deal-making in the future. If banks and investors have to worry that their Shariah-compliant bonds and loans might later be declared un-Islamic by the borrower, thus nullifying the whole contract, they might not be so ready to enter into such deals. Indeed, as Sheikh Muddassir Siddiqui, a Shariah scholar, said in the article, "This is a very dangerous defence. For people dealing with Islamic financial organizations, it adds sharia risk to all the other common risks out there."

Unfortunately perhaps, it's just the sort of defence that we're likely to see more of. Companies around the region - including Islamic financial institutions - are going through some tough times at the moment. If questioning the validity of loan contracts on Shariah-compliance grounds becomes a successful way to wriggle out of financial obligations, others will certainly try the tactic. And investors and banks will think harder before they sign off on big Islamic deals, thus threatening the industry's rapid pace of growth.

It will be interesting to see how receptive the London court is to TID's claim. How seriously it is treated could have broad implications for the Islamic finance industry as it seeks to take a more central place in the Gulf's financial firmament following the financial crisis.