BANKING - Articles - Turkish participation banks should enter Europe

sharingrisk.org - S&P recently suggested that Turkish participation banks, as Islamic banks are known in the country, could sustain their recent growth (they accounted for 5% of assets in the country at year-end 2010, compared with 2.8% in 2005) if they leverage their international ties further (three of the four participation banks have GCC-based owners).  I would take this one step further and suggest that they could provide a lead in continental Europe for Islamic banking with financial support from their owners. It is already underway with Kuveyt Turk, the Turkish subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House, opening a branch in Germany and Bank Asya planning an acquisition in the Balkans. (source)

EU - Prospects of Islamic Finance by Yves Mersch

The speech "Prospects of Islamic Finance: The View of a Central Bank in Europe" has been presented today by Governor Yves Mersch at the Islamic Finance Conference, Frankfurt, Germany.

Yves Mersch, Governor of the Banque centrale du Luxembourg, Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.

(Photo: Julien Becker/archive)