Asian Finance Bank sets to establish presence in Brunei

Brunei-Muara - The Asian Finance Bank plans to establish a representative office in Brunei, after making inroads in obtaining a licence to set up a representative office -in Jakarta over the course of the week. -

"As a well-established international financial hub, it is about time for Hong Kong to launch Islamic bonds to catch up with the rest of global financial markets," Alaskary said.

A report from Dow Jones said that the Asian Finance Bank's efforts will be the first steps in setting up a fully fledged bank in enhancing its presence in the region, adding to its existing Kuala Lumpur-based bank.

Asian Finance Bank should acquire their licence by next week to set up a representative office in Jakarta, in a first step to setting up a fully fledged bank there by 2009 or 2010, a top executive at the Kuala Lumpur-based bank said.

The plans to set up in Brunei will have to be considered first by the Ministry of Finance, the governing authority for financial institutions in the sultanate.

Earlier this year, HSBC had indicated that talks have been ongoing in setting up their Islamic financial arm in Brunei.

Meanwhile the Asian Finance Bank's plans will prove to be another indicator at the growing potential of Islamic finance here in the sultanate.

Currently in Brunei, there exists one Islamic bank: Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam, with the other Islamic financial institution being the Brunei Islamic Trust Fund (TAIB).

Asian Finance Bank is a joint venture between Qatar Islamic Bank, RUSD Investment Bank of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait-based Global Investment House, and officially opened for business in Malaysia in March this year. It is also looking to financing infrastructure projects in China, as it continues to develop rapidly.

But the bank's main focus is concentrating primarily on corporate rather than retail Islamic banking.

Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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