IslamicFinance.de

Sberbank of Russia (SBR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) to help the bank’s clients access Islamic finance products. ICD senior regional manager Samir Taghiyev said the MoU would reinforce SBR efforts to develop Russia as a strong hub. He added that the ICD would help share its knowledge to develop the corporate, retail and private banking as well as the training needed. The MoU was signed by Okan Altasli, the Director of Regional offices at ICD and Oleg V Ganeev, Deputy Chairman of SBR. The document was signed on the sidelines of the 1st Russian Islamic Economy Forum co-organized by ICD, IAIB, Sberbank, KPMG and Thiqah in Moscow.

The Islamic fund on microfinance may be soon created in Azerbaijan. Recently, a mission of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), which included the ICD Senior Regional Manager of for CIS and Europe countries Samir Taghiyev and the Microfinance Advisor at the ICD Bassem Khanfar, visited Baku. Azerbaijan has become one of the two countries, where the ICD starts negotiations with participants of the microfinance market. The second country is Kazakhstan. Earlier, during the 8th Micro-finance Conference in Baku, Executive Director of Azerbaijan Micro-finance Association (AMFA) Zhale Hajiyeva said that businessmen of post-Soviet countries also showed interest in the market. Currently, loan portfolio of Azerbaijan’s microfinance organizations amounted to $485.16 million, according to AMFA.