NEWS .

20/11/2008

WILL BELARUS BANKING SECTOR MEET EXPANSION OF THE IRANIAN CAPITAL?

Another foreign bank with the Iranian capital may appear in Belarus in the nearest time. The investors are currently preparing the paperwork for registration with the National Bank. The market players agree that particularly now Belarus should expect active expansion by Islamic banks, which have no problems with liquidity comparing to the European financial institutions.

If registered, the new bank will become another example of the Iranian capital entering Belarus banking market. For reference, in September the National Bank has registered ZAO «Bank Torgoviy Kapital» («TK Bank») with the Iranian «Tejarat Bank» and JV «Lada OMC - Holding» being the shareholders. At the same time another transaction with participation of Arab bankers was concluded: Lebanese «Fransabank» and «Fransa Holding» have jointly acquired the 98,93% share of «Bank Golden Taler JSC».

In opinion of the Chairman of the Board of «TK Bank» Andrey Veretelnikov, coming of the Iranian capital to the banking sector of Belarus is quite logical, you can observe activisation of Islamic banking institutions in the midst of the world financial crisis in many countries. "Principles of Sheriyat dictate a diferrent policy in banking risks and client relations, unlike it is on the West. In particularly, Iran has no loan scheme in our habitual sense. Nor they have a depositary system because local laws prohibit receiving interest on capital. The result of it is a financing system where the client invests money to certain projects in partnership with the bank. That is why portfolios of Iranian banks are marketable even under the world financial crisis. They have accumulated substantial funds, relatively free, which they would like to invest,» A. Veretelnikov commented the situation.

Besides, due to the restrictive policy of certain Western countries towards using Islamic money on their territories, the area for investment of the Eastern capital expands including for the account of the Eastearn European markets. «TK Bank» explains Belarus was chosen because of the rapid development of our banking sector as well as appearance of Iranian investors in the Belarusian machine-building industry and construction business. Additionally to financing of projects of the Iranian residents, banks from Islamic countries might also be interested in consumer crediting, mortgage and microlending,» A.Veretelnikov beleives.