BERLIN,
January 4, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest
bank, is planning to expand in producing services and products aimed
at Muslim clients.
"There
is enormous potential for growth since the demand in this area far
outstrips the supply," Hans-Juergen Koch, the director of the
Swiss branch of the bank, told the daily Boersen Zeitung
Tuesday, January 3.
Koch
said the services should conform with Islamic law, or Shari`ah, adding
that Deutsche Bank had charged its Swiss branch with developing
services for Islamic clients as Geneva was, along with London, the
main financial market for Muslims in Europe, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Deutsche
Bank set up a committee in 2004 to examine to what extent its products
conformed to Islamic law and hoped to create products that did so
without diminishing the financial performance clients would expect,
Koch said.
The
bank believed this would allow it to increase its client base in the
Middle East, where 5 to 10 percent of all investments are made in
banking products that conform to Sharia`ah, he added.
Under
Shari`ah, interest on bank accounts is
(unlawful) because such interest is an increase of money made without
effort or trade.
Islam
prohibits depositing one’s wealth and taking specified increase
without the risk of either loss or profit making.
Therefore,
the type of investment allowed is where a person deposits money in an
account and shares both the risk of making profit or losing.
Shari`ah
further forbids Muslims from receiving
or paying interest on loans.
Influx
of Cash
Deposits
of Arabs and Muslims in Deutsche Bank were estimated in 2004 at up to
500 million euros.
German
banks had witnessed an influx of Muslim and Arab cash in the wake of
the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
Pundits
say that more than $250 million of Arab and Islamic investments are
concentrated in Europe.
The
German city of Cologne played host in May to an international
conference on the booming Islamic banking and Shari`ah-compliant
dealings.
Turkey’s
Istanbul further hosted in September of 2004 to the International
Islamic Finance Forum (IIFF), known as the “Muslim Davos forum.”
The
Islamic banking industry, which began almost three decades ago, has
made substantial growth and attracted the attention of investors and
bankers across the world.
Growing
at an estimated 15 percent annually, the Islamic finance market is
currently estimated to be worth more than $300 billion with more than
200 Islamic finance institutions operating worldwide.
In
2003, HSBC banking group became the fist high street bank in Britain
to offer mortgages and current accounts in accordance with Shari`ah.
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