Baku, Azerbaijan, August 1
By Zulfiyya Gurbanova - Trend:
The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) plans to work actively on Islamic financial markets of the Persian Gulf countries, Director of the Islamic Banking Department of IBA Behnam Gurbanzade told Trend.
"IBA constantly increases relations with financial institutions interested in Islamic finance, which in turn creates a favorable investment environment in Azerbaijan," he said.
The total amount of raised IBA funds from the Islamic financial institutions amounts to $218.7 million today, according to Gurbanzade.
Furthermore, by taking into account the interest of Russian banks in Islamic banking, the IBA plans to establish a working group and prepare a relevant package of proposals to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
"However, as we observed recently, Russia's Central Bank is actively working to improve the banking system of the country. In particular, licenses of more than 30 banks that do not meet the requirements of the Central Bank of the country have been revoked and the process is still being continued. We assume that after completion of reforms, it would be reasonable to establish a working group and prepare a package of proposals to the CBR. IBA-Moscow acts as initiator of this process. Today, the work is being carried out by the IBA and IBA-Moscow to analyze legislation and prospects of Islamic banking in Russia," he noted.
As Gurbanzade said earlier, IBA is ready to take responsibility for the promotion of Islamic banking in the CIS countries in accordance with the initiative of the CIS Financial & Banking Council, consisting in IBA`s determining as a common development bank of Islamic finance in the region.
The bank has all the prerequisites to build a bridge between Asia and the Middle East, as well as between the CIS and the Gulf countries, according to the department director.
"This, in turn, will enable us to receive good financial dividends. The major plan for this year is to develop a plan of amendments to the regulatory in order to enable the full-fledged Islamic banking in our country. This will complete the process of creating the Islamic development center in Azerbaijan," he noted.
The International Bank of Azerbaijan started providing services in Islamic banking last April. The share of Islamic banking in the total loan portfolio of the IBA, amounts to 5.695 billion AZN as of July 1, 2014 and makes up 3 percent.
The IBA`s department of the Islamic baking provides services for corporate clients and individuals. The bank carries out active work in the sphere of improvement of legislation. The working group which includes the IBA specialists and the representatives of a number of miniseries and governmental enterprise, prepares a package of proposals for regulation of Islamic banking in Azerbaijan.
The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) was founded in January 1992. The IBA is the largest bank in the country. The bank's main shareholder is the Azerbaijani government, which owns a 50.2 percent stake, while 49.8 percent of the shares are owned by private shareholders.
The official exchange rate on August 1 is 0.7843 AZN/USD.
Edited by CN
