IslamicFinance.de

At the moment there are six Islamic banks operating in Turkey, with Kuveyt Turk, Turkiye Finans and Albaraka Turk holding around three quarters of their market share. Harun Çelik, the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation’s (ITFC) regional head for Turkey, says that agriculture is one of the sectors where Islamic banks have big growth potential. Out of almost Tl120bn (US$18.5bn) of agricultural finance in Turkey, the six Islamic banks are only getting 1% of that. That’s where he sees growth potential. Perhaps the greatest nascent opportunity lies with small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). One useful emerging tool for SMEs could be factoring. A form of supply chain finance, factoring typically involves a supplier selling its invoices to a third party at a discount. For the supplier it means quicker access to working capital, while the third party makes its profit once the invoices are paid.

The Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (Baft) and International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) are creating an industry standard for buying and selling Islamic trade-related risk. The two parties have announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to create a so-called master risk participation agreement. The industry already has such a standard, which was introduced 10 years ago and became the industry benchmark for such trade finance transactions. Baft president Tod Burwell said the association aims to repeat that success in the Islamic trade finance space, where standardisation is much needed. The Islamic risk participation agreement will incorporate considerations for funded and unfunded risk participations in trade assets within a Sharia-compliant framework. IIFM chairman Khalid Hamad said the cooperation with Baft would contribute to increasing the trade finance business on a Sharia-compliant basis.