Islamic banking in Kazakhstan: first hand

On May 12, 2010 Timur Alim, director of the regional office in Almata of Al-Hilal Bank read a lection in Moscow international higher business school (MIRBIS) about the experience of adoption of Islamic banking in Kazakhstan.

The lection was held within the framework of academic course “Islamic finance”.

The law about Islamic banking was passed in Kazakhstan in 2009. From this time everybody has expected appearance of Islamic banks in the territory of CIS. Finally after a year the affiliated bank of Emirates Islamic bank Al-Hilal has got a license for implementation of Islamic finance’s operations in Kazakhstan.

Timur Alim in his presentation affected the history of development of Islamic banking in Kazakhstan, contributory preconditions and factors. Particularly was noted that country’s guidance has taken a big role in designing and approving the bill about Islamic banking. Without the political will this issue would not be shifted.

Also the lecturer noticed which problems has been met and solved by Al-Hilal bank’s team during the opening of the bank and voiced which operations of Islamic financing are currently used now and why they have chosen exactly these operations. Special attention was paid to operations of taxation and accounting.

In the end of the lection audience expressed the hope for further study of the experience of the Al-Hilal bank for development of this area in Russia.

21.05.2010