Bank's Shariah Adviser Maulana Mufti Zubair Usmani highlighted the philosophy of Shariah compliant banking services, Riba and Shariah compliant banking system. MCB Islamic Banking Division General Manager Rashid Rehman highlighted the background of the Islamic banking, global and domestic scenario and different products being offered by the bank.
Shoaib Qureshi said that the MCB was the first commercial bank, which started Islamic banking through dedicated branches some 15 months back. He claimed that encouraging response has been received both from the business and industrial communities. He assured the business community that the MCB could cater to their financial needs.
He said that they had customers from almost all the segments of the industry such as textile, wearing, garments, cotton exporters, fertilisers, sugar, leather and leather garments.
He also assured that the products being offered by their bank was not mere change of name, but they take step-by-step guidance from religious scholars to make any product Shariah complaint. He also cited the example of making LC Shariah complaint by consulting some Karachi-based scholars.
To a point raised by a former LCCI President, Ilyas Chaudhry, Shoaib Qureshi said that the objective behind the non-Islamic countries banks to provide Islamic product was to arrest the flow of Islamic capital out of their banks.
He also claimed that Pakistan would hopefully cover the distance in Islamic banking in just five years, which Malaysia covered in 20 years. He said that Islamic banking assets in Pakistan with different banks were Rs 13 billion in 2003, which increased to Rs 44 billion in 2004.
MCB Islamic Banking Division General Manager Rashid Rehman told the participants that in all Islamic banking was being offered in 48 countries of the world, including some non-Islamic countries. He said that annual growth rate of Islamic banking globally was around 15 to 20 percent. Recently, an Islamic Commercial Bank was established in the UK approved by the Bank of England.
He said that in Pakistan, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has asked the banks to adopt three modes of introducing Islamic banking, including offering services in the existing infrastructure, setting up dedicated or stand-alone branches or setting up new Islamic Commercial Bank.
He also highlighted different products being offered by the MCB, including MCB's Deposit Scheme 'Almakhraj', (Riba-free term deposit, current and savings accounts), different modes of Islamic financing such as Murabaha, Islamic Export Refinance Scheme, letter of credit, car, machinery/equipment scheme under the name of Ijrah and future products such as Musharaka Term Finance, Diminishing Musharaka for housing finance, Musawama financing, letter of guarantee and Istisna.
Earlier in his address of welcome, LCCI Senior Vice President Sohail Lashari said that as per the estimates there are around 150 or so Islamic financial institutions operating in 48 countries, including Non-Islamic states. That is indicative of the practicality of the concepts not just in an ideally tuned society, but also where there is somewhat a cut-throat competition, he said.
He said switching over to Islamic banking would surely ensure a more free mode of loaning and if such things do materialise, there may be no need to create micro-finance institutions to specifically address the needs of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).