IslamicFinance.de

The board of directors of Faysal Bank has decided to covert make the bank’s operations Sharia compliant from conventional, but the snail’s pace migration is raising questions about its success in a highly competitive regime and in times when Islamic banking is expanding at a fast pace.

The bank is operating its 277 branches with 63 dedicated Islamic Banking branches having vision to migrate overall operation into full-fledged Islamic banking in next three to four years but its strategy is not being reflected into its plan but seems confusing with its offering to customers and investment in government papers. In a talk show “Aap Aur Karobaar” on Business Plus Tv, Host Khalil Ahmed and Banking Analyst SN Arif discussed business, operations and strategy of bank and its success in its peer in the banking industry.

Islamic investment firm Arcapita is the first Gulf company to emerge from U.S. bankruptcy under Chapter 11 rules. Arcapita’s plan is to transfer its assets into a new holding company which will dispose of them over time to pay off creditors and gradually wind-down the firm. Arcapita’s creditors include Barclays, CIMB, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered and the Central Bank of Bahrain – its largest creditor with $255.1 million owed.

The world is already used to radical intervention by governments in the banking sector. This is the case of banks like Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Citicorp and many others.
That's the reason why it's no surprise that the Dubai Government is taking over Dubai Bank.
The move could also be seen as a bit of internal accounting by the emirate's authorities. It also lightens the financial burden for Emaar Properties, which held a 30 % stake.

Royal Bank of Scotland sees big growth opportunities in Islamic investment banking, expecting asset growth rates to remain 15-20 percent annually and profitability levels to increase, Navid Goraya, RBS' global head of Islamic banking said.