HamkorBank sets sights on becoming Uzbekistan’s first Islamic bank (By IFN)

HamkorBank sets sights on becoming Uzbekistan’s first Islamic bank

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EUROPE: Uzbekistan-based financial institution HamkorBank is looking to collaborate with selected international organizations to become the first entity to provide Islamic banking solutions to the country’s 29 million Muslims. The chairman of the bank’s supervisory board, Ikram Ibragimov, said that HamkorBank is looking to develop its human capital base to ensure that its Islamic banking initiatives and, to a greater extent, Uzbekistan’s Islamic banking and finance aspirations, can be kick-started with "sound foundations". He added that the bank, which focuses mainly on SMEs, is the only bank in Uzbekistan which is looking to collaborate with international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank and Asian Development Bank for this purpose. In May 2010 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) acquired a 14.5% stake in HamkorBank, at US$0.09 cents per share, for US$3 million. The stake was then diluted to 12.59% in 2012 when the bank issued additional equity worth US$3.4 million. In a report by UK-based Ansher Investments, the bank’s total assets were forecast to reach US$351.4 million in 2012, at a growth rate of 13-15% a year. The report added: “Besides the IFC, the bank’s collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) in lending, trade finance, technical assistance, equity investment and a proposed cooperation with KfW Bankengruppe will be key accelerators for the bank’s growing operational and financial performance.” HamkorBank has selected the AlHuda Center of Islamic Banking and Economics in Pakistan to provide consultancy and Shariah advisory services.