If everything goes as usual, commencement of a planned Islamic investment or investment megabank is only a matter of time in and around Manama, capital of Bahrain; located at the northern end of Bahrain Island. Reason? In accordance with an executive at a firm advising on the project, the program is almost settled and the establishment is in “fairly advanced stages” and it will likely be launched in the next six to 12 months. All these lofty projects hail from the plans of Chairman of Al Baraka Banking Group BARKA.BH Sheikh Saleh Abdulla Kamel, having the sole intention to form the largest sharia-compliant lender across the globe.
It is worthwhile to mention that Sheikh Saleh said last April the global financial crisis had delayed the project, but that they hoped to commence it by the fourth quarter of 2009. “The key shareholders I would say are on board and we are looking for an imminent launch, within six months to a year,” Sameer Abdi, head of Islamic finance at Ernst & Young, told the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit in Bahrain.
On the word of Sheikh Saleh in April, the new institution so far had about 10 shareholders, including the Islamic Development Bank ISDBA.UL, Saudi Investment bank 1030.SE and the Kuwait Real Estate Bank. Analysts depict that bigger Islamic banks are seen decisive for the industry to comprehend its growth potential and to compete with Islamic windows or subsidiaries of Western conventional banks that have large market shares in wholesale banking services.
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