HSBC will offer a wide range of Islamic products in Bangladesh by year-end.
Razi S Fakih, global deputy chief executive of the bank’s Islamic unit, who was in Dhaka on a day’s visit, made the disclosure. He made the visit last week to oversee the bank’s progress in Islamic banking here.
Fakih said with the re-launch of the Amanah products, customers, ranging from students to retirees, would get services under Islamic financing. Amanah is HSBC’s Islamic banking window.
“Expansion of the Amanah product range in Bangladesh involved a lot of interrelated steps. We had to invest in state-of-the-art banking software that would enable us to offer a full range of personal and corporate banking products in strict compliance with Shariah,” Fakih said.
The deputy CEO of HSBC Amanah believes Bangladesh is a promising and emerging market for Islamic finance because of its economic growth and the size of its Muslim population. Bangladesh’s economic growth has averaged 5.5 percent since 1996 and has a population of over 160 million people, nearly 90 percent of whom are Muslims.
Fakih, an Indian national by birth, is excited to see that a lot of non-Muslim people across the world are also accessing the bank’s Islamic financing system.
“A large segment of our customers in Malaysia are of Chinese origin (non-Muslim) and the same can be said for our customers in the UAE,” said Fakih.
HSB Bangladesh has been offering a limited range of Amanah products since February 2004. The current product range includes only import finance services and the current accounts.
However, with the re-launch at the end of this year, a wider range of Shariah compliant personal and commercial products will be available, according to officials.
Fakih said the Islamic banking system remained unaffected by the global economic crisis because it works with the real economy, not any derivatives.
