Islamic Finance to be Integrated into Main Operations
The decision by DBS Bank of Singapore to wind down its Islamic banking unit and integrate the specialist skills of its Islamic finance bankers into its main operations signals new levels of maturity for the Islamic finance industry.
Islamic finance sits stronger as part of the total, not a sum of the parts and the move by DBS reflects tighter integration of Sharia compliant financial services, which DBS was keen to state it will continue to provide. DBS will attempt to absorb the staff of the Islamic Bank of Asia, which was established in 2007 as a joint venture between DBS Bank and prominent investors based in the Gulf. “After much consideration, the board of directors of The Islamic Bank of Asia Ltd (IB Asia) has unanimously agreed to progressively wind down IB Asia. As a separate legal entity, IB Asia is unable to achieve economies of scale,” DBS said in a filing to the stock exchange.
Sukuk Arranger
DBS has worked as arranger for Ooredoo, a Qatari telecoms provider who issued a $1.25 billion sukuk in 2013, and also arranged a Singapore dollars denominated $900 million sukuk for Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional in 2010.
