Zaman-Bank established as Kazakhstan's second Islamic bank

By bne IntelliNews August 29, 2017

Kazakhstan’s Zaman-Bank has officially established itself as an Islamic bank after receiving an Islamic banking licence from the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the Astana Times reported on August 28.

Established in 1991 as a commercial bank, Zaman-Bank originally planned to turn into Islamic Banking back in 2014, but a lack of regulations on converting regular commercial banks to Islamic banks stalled the process.

Prior to Zaman-Bank’s transformation, Al Hilal Bank, created in 2010 as part of an intergovernmental agreement between Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), stood as the country’s only Islamic bank.

An Islamic bank is required to conform to both principles of Islamic law and the central bank’s regulations.

Zaman-Bank in 2013 signed a partnership agreement with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group. ICD subsequently gained a mandate to transform Zaman-Bank into an Islamic bank “with expected investment of up to 35% of the bank’s subscribed and paid-up capital”, the report said.

Zaman-Bank will mainly focus on retail banking and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Related Articles

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan’s combined IT exports surpass $800mn

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan’s combined IT exports surpassed $800mn in 2023. The Kazakh IT sector's export revenue jumped from $50mn in 2020 to over $500mn last year. Astana Hub was a major ... more

Reconstruction of Afghanistan-Uzbekistan railway starts, ambition is to extend route to Pakistan

Engineers have commenced the $6.3mn and three-month reconstruction of the 75-kilometre (47-mile) cross-border railway line that links Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, ... more

Qatar’s Lesha Bank interested in acquiring former subsidiary of Sberbank in Kazakhstan

The Qatar Stock Exchange said in a statement that Qatar’s Lesha Bank has initiated discussions with the Kazakh national management holding Baiterek regarding the ... more

Dismiss