Azerbaijan, the oil-rich Caspian country with a population of about 9 million and a member of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), is reaching out to Islamic finance. Faig Mammdov, special adviser to the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), Jahangir Hajiyev, focuses on the current developments and future prospects for Islamic finance in the country and region and gave an interview to Mushtak Parker, Arab News. Currently there is no specific regulation and no stand alone Islamic banks, but some products, as well as Islamic microfinance.