August 14, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 15, 1424

KARACHI, Aug 13: The Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) has granted a licence to National Bank of Bahrain to establish an Islamic Financing Company in Bahrain with an authorized and paid-up capital of BD11.4 million our about US30 million.

According to a fax message received here from BMA, the said Islamic financing company will operate as a Sharia compliant financier in Bahrain’s local market and will provide loans to the public based on the Sharia law.

The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Bank of Bahrain. BMA has recently developed a special licence for this type of activity.