February 26, 2006	Sunday	Muharram 27, 1427

KARACHI, Feb 25: State Bank of Pakistan has assured to consider a proposal for development of Islamic interbank market which would enable the Islamic banks to meet their liquidity scarcity.

SBP Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar extended this assurance on Saturday while chairing a meeting of chief executives of present and upcoming full-fledged Islamic banks who requested the SBP to help them for better liquidity management.

The chief executives highlighted the issues facing the industry in its early stages of development. These include liquidity management which would require an effective development of Islamic interbank market and trained human resources.

They were of the view that the rapid growth of Islamic banking would be dependent on providing level-playing field to both the conventional and Islamic banks.

According to a press release of the central bank, the SBP governor had agreed to look at approaches to develop Islamic interbank market.

She said that the Islamic banking had great potential to grow and the SBP was committed to its development. She added that Islamic banking was growing rapidly not only in Pakistan but also throughout the world.

She impressed upon the heads of Islamic banks to meet the growing challenges in the development of Islamic banking.

“Pakistan has provided a supportive policy and regulatory framework for Islamic banking due to which investors of international repute are coming to establish new Islamic banks in the country,” she added.

The meeting was attended among others by the country manager of Albaraka Islamic Bank BSC EC, chief executives of BankIslami Pakistan Limited, Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited, Emirates Global Islamic Bank Limited, First Dawood Islamic Bank Limited (proposed) and the directors of Islamic Banking, Banking Supervision and Banking Inspection Departments of the State Bank of Pakistan.