QNB to set up Islamic financial services firm

SHARIA COMPLIANT: QNB said it had agreed to set up an Islamic financial services firm with Kuwaiti partners.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) said on Sunday it had agreed with Kuwaiti partners to set up an Islamic financial services firm to tap growing demand for Sharia compliant financing in the Gulf Arab region.

Qatar's biggest bank by market value will own 30% of Kuwaiti-Qatari Company for Leasing and Investment, which will provide Islamic financial services to Gulf countries, the lender said in a statement on the Doha bourse website, without giving details.

Qatar National did not name its Kuwaiti partners in the 24 million dinar ($88.46 million) firm, which will comply with Islam's ban on purchasing assets that pay interest or earn profits from industries related to alcohol, gambling or pork processing, among others.

Qatar National's Islamic banking operations - which contributed 148 million riyals to its profit last year - could climb by as much as 80% in 2008, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ramzi Talat Mari told newswire Reuters in January.

Like other lenders in the world's biggest oil-exporting region, Qatar National has been expanding abroad as competition in its home market intensifies.

The lender said in September it had agreed with partners to set up a bank in Syria and revealed earlier this month that it took over the Qatar government's 50% stake in Tunisian-Qatari Bank.

In July, Qatar National had taken over the government's shares in Jordan's second-biggest lender. (Reuters)

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