Bangladesh Bank (BB) has finalised a guideline on Islamic banking allowing a commercial bank to form a separate company for operating Islamic banking with fresh Tk 100 crore paid up capital.
The subsidiary company will need to offload 49 percent of its share while the parent company can own the remaining 51 percent.
As per the new guideline, the commercial banks will have to maintain separate accounts in case of operating an Islamic bank branch and also statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and cash reserve requirement (CRR) with the central bank.
At the same time, the BB also finalised the guideline for any new Islamic banks in the country. In case of a new Islamic bank, the sponsors will have to offload 50 percent of the bank's shares and a sponsor director will not be allowed to own shares worth more than Tk 25 million.
Presently, banks have their own shariah council and there has been a central shariah council to look into whether Islamic banking as a whole is operated as per the Islamic principles.
According to the new guideline, a bank may form a shariah supervisory body to monitor its Islamic banking operation but the board of directors of that bank will be liable to the central bank for its overall operation. It would be optional for banks to maintain their relations with the central shariah council.
Now, there is no separate guideline for Islamic banking in the country. The BB, for the first time, has formulated the guidelines for the new Islamic banks and the banks already operating Islamic banking branches.
The six commercial banks presently operating Islamic banking in the country are Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Al-Arafah Bank, Social Investment Bank Ltd, Exim Bank Ltd, Oriental Bank Ltd and Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd.
