ISTANBUL (Turkey), December 23 (SeeNews) – Turkish lender Vakifbank [BIST:VAKBN] said it has decided to seek $300 million (245 million euro) financing from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to establish an Islamic banking unit.
Turkey’s Treasury will provide guarantee for the financing, the state-controlled bank said in a bourse filing on Monday.
On Monday, state-controlled bank Halkbank said it will raise its capital by 1.0 billion lira to set up a wholly-owned Islamic banking unit. Another state-controlled bank, Ziraat Bank, in October received regulatory approval to establish an Islamic banking unit with a registered capital of $300 million.
Four Islamic banks are currently operating in Turkey - also called participation banks because they do not collect interest but share the profit or loss of their borrowers.
IDB is an international financial institution established in Saudi Arabia with the aim to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities in accordance with the principles of Islamic law.
($ = 0.817 euro)