IslamicFinance.de

Tunisia's El Wifack Leasing plans to become the country's third full-fledged Islamic bank by August and will receive a capital injection from the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). The ICD will not only provide technical assistance, but also inject up to 30 percent of the bank's capital, helping it increase its authorized capital to at least 150 million dinars ($77 million), El Wifack's general manager Mohammed Mellousse said. It will start offering sharia-compliant deposits through eight branches and build a network of 60 branches within five years, aiming for a 1.5 percent share of Tunisia's total banking market, he added. Currently, there are two full-fledged Islamic banks in Tunisia, Zitouna Bank and the Tunisian arm of Bahrain's Al Baraka Banking Group.

Tunisia's El Wifack Leasing has applied to regulators to become the country's third fully-fledged Islamic bank. El Wifack, which has its debt rated BB+ by Fitch Ratings, also said it planned to raise its capital by five million dinars ($3.1m) to 25m dinars, regardless of whether it received approval to operate as an Islamic bank. Currently, Sharia-compliant business accounts for just 2.5 per cent of the Tunisian financial sector with only two fully operational Islamic banks, Zitouna Bank and the Tunisian arm of Bahrain's Al Baraka Banking Group. Last month, parliament approved a law that will allow the state to issue sukuk. The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank has offered Tunisia a financial guarantee to issue a sukuk worth $600m, though the issue could be delayed to 2014 because of political instability and approaching elections.

The board of directors of El Wifack Leasing company wants to transform itself into a Universal Islamic bank and has submitted an application to the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) in order to get the approval. The transformation of the company comes by virtue of the decision taken during its meeting last March 28.

Le conseil d’administration de la société « El Wifack Leasing » a déposé auprès de la Banque centrale de Tunisie (BCT) une demande d’agrément pour la transformation de la société en Banque islamique universelle. Dans un communiqué publié sur le site du Conseil du marché financier (CMF), la même source souligne que l’instruction du dossier d’agrément demeure encore au stade initial et que le conseil d’administration de la société El Wifack Leasing ne peut s’exprimer jusque là sur les issues potentielles que peut prendre cette demande. A défaut d’obtention de l’agrément, la société continuera à développer son activité et lancera sa deuxième tranche d’augmentation de capital, a avancé El Wifack Leasing.