Citibank to push for sharia compliant microfinance banks

July 19, 2010 by creepingsharia

Sharia compliant finance is a shell game – that funds jihad. via Citibank to push for shariah-compliant microfinance banks.

Citibank will push the idea of establishing Shariah-compliant microfinance banks for the needs of millions of Muslims, left financially excluded because of Islam’s prohibition on interest, a senior official said on Monday. “There are large microfinance banks in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Morocco, Egypt and India where the strength of the Muslim population is greater. But interestingly none of them are Shariah-compliant,” said Global Director Citi Microfinance Robert A Annibale.

“If something has become an impediment between the people and microfinance banks, it should be addressed,” he said. “There are some industry people who fear that business will be politicised, but that should not be a matter of worry.”

Pakistan’s microfinance banks and institutions have grown tremendously in just a few years, he said. “Relatively, when you look at the number of un-banked people in the country, the 1.9 million borrowers of microfinance banks, looks impressive.”

He said microfinance banks are not facing much of a funding problem, but rather difficulties in raising equity to meet regulatory requirements. “The real task is the scale — the level of outreach.”

Annibale said microfinance banks could work with other organisations like post offices, grocers and even gas stations to sell a range of banking services to the poor. “This way they save a lot of money in terms of infrastructure costs.”

About lack of quality human resource in the microfinance industry, he said microfinance banks are now attracting a lot of graduates from leading universities around the world. “These graduates see that conventional banks are not growing and want to try something else. But most importantly, they are socially conscious and want to contribute towards a better change.”

Like submitting others to Islamic sharia law. Remember, the real ground work for Islamic finance took place in NYC, we led the way: