IslamicFinance.de

Pervez Said is no stranger to adversity. In his 33 year-long career, he has worked with 10 different organizations, having served as chief executive at four different institutions. He is considered to be the pioneer of Islamic banking in Pakistan due to his instrumental role at the State Bank of Pakistan in the formative years of Islamic banking. But his current stint at the House Building Finance Company may well be the biggest challenge he has taken on yet. You can find excerpts from a recent interview in which Said discussed the housing crisis in Pakistan and the role HBFCL is playing in alleviating it following the article link.

Shanthy Nambiar and Farhan Sharif reported on Bloomberg, 27 January, that Pakistan's Islamic banks plan to expand their network of outlets this year to take advantage of rising demand for Shariah-compliant financing according to Pervez Said, director of Islamic banking at the State Bank of Pakistan. These banks have 500 branches, after adding 210 outlets last year. Pakistan is promoting growth in Islamic finance to expand the reach of the banking sector which has less than 25 million deposit accounts. Shariah-compliant facilities are forecast to rise to 277 billion rupees ($3.5 billion) this year from 185 billion in 2008, according to central bank data.