KARACHI, May 25: The State Bank on Tuesday issued a licence to Standard Chartered Bank for operating its first ever dedicated Islamic banking branch located in Karachi.

Director of Islamic Banking Department of SBP Pervez Said handed over the licence to Head of Consumer Banking Division of Standard Chartered Bank Abdi Sattar at a ceremony held at the SBP head office here. Afaq Khan who heads global Islamic Banking division of the bank was also present at the occasion.

"This is the first licence issued to Standard Chartered for Islamic Banking as a part of its global Islamic banking operations which also makes it one of the largest foreign banks operating in Pakistan to get an Islamic banking branch licence," said a press release issued by the SBP.

With the issuance of this licence the total number of conventional banks that are having stand-alone Islamic banking branches has increased to five. Four other banks that already have Islamic banking branches include (i) Muslim Commercial Bank (ii) Bank Alfalah (iii) Habib Bank AG Zurich; and (iv) Bank of Khyber. Besides Meezan Bank is operating as a fully-fledged Islamic commercial bank.