Azernews.Az

BAKU – ernational Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the country’s leading bank, continues working to introduce Islamic banking services and plans to reach this goal next year.

"The implementation of the project on introducing Islamic banking products and services in IBA’s activities is successful," said Head of the Group Behnam Gurbanzade. "The bank’s management has adopted a concept involving the introduction and development of Islamic banking at the bank. The concept was developed by an ad hoc working group and includes strategic decisions and concrete measures."

IBA is the first bank in Azerbaijan to have attracted and successfully applied financing products under Islamic banking. In 2009, it created a special team to open the "Islamic Window" division in the bank.

"The concept of the project on opening the Islamic Window is ready," Gurbanzade said. "The stages that include beginning work under the current legislation were clearly described and proposals for appropriate amendments to existing legislation were developed. We have almost realized the first stage of the project, which envisions preparations. At the moment we are working on the second, final stage, which implies the involvement of international experts to run and monitor the implementation of the project. The bank is in talks and is reviewing proposals from several international consulting companies. Later in November we will be ready to formally present the consultancy and proceed with the joint launch of the project."