ICD to assist Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston conversion to full Shariah operations

Kazakhstan-Almaty: Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) has signed an advisory services agreement with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (“IDB”), in order to process and support its conversion to full Shariah compliant operations.

The agreement is designed to develop an advisory process in order to efficiently and effectively deliver full conversion: including to identify challenges and address impediments to this mutual collaboration. The ICD will dedicate seven key teams across the full conversion process: including in the areas of project management, Shariah compliance, treasury, accounting, human resources, information technology, marketing and legal framework.

Mr. Khaled Al Aboodi, the CEO of ICD commented: “We are delighted to be supporting one of the leading banks in the sector in its initial move towards Islamic operations, and believe that this will open the door to numerous other operators identifying the opportunities inherent in the Shariah compliant financial system.”

The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CJSC “Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston “, Mr. Tojidin Pirzoda said in his interview that Islamic banking was one of the positive methods of products and services of any bank. It is especially necessary to emphasize the enormous contribution of the Islamic Bank for lending to small and medium-sized businesses of the population.

Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston moving to principles of Islamic banking

In Dushanbe, 26-28 October 2014, the management of CJSC “Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston ” has decided to adopt the principles of Islamic banking. “Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston ” is hoping to become the leading platform in Tajikistan to provide customers with a bank of new banking products, which provides a ban on charging interest. The bank is studying the experience in the implementation of the principles of Islamic banking in the banking systems of the European Union, the USA, China, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Practice shows that in spite of the existing demand for Islamic banking products, they are not sufficiently represented in the banking system of Tajikistan. Currently, the majority of Tajik banks are interested in work on the principles of Islamic banking. Presently, Tajik banks are willing to follow the principles of Islamic banking.

It is worthy to mention that on July 26 2014 the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan “On the Islamic Banking” was adopted in the Republic of Tajikistan. In addition, the National Bank of Tajikistan has established a working group that develops the draft amendments to several legislative and regulatory legal acts for the organization of the mechanism of regulation of Islamic banking. It is expected that this work will be completed by the end of the first semester of 2015.