Kazakhstan and Egypt: Islamic banking partnership

Cairo, December 1, 2022 - Ambassador Kairat Lama Sharif met with the head of the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, Abdelhamid Mohammad Abou Moussa.

During the conversation, the Kazakh diplomat informed the interlocutor about the economic potential of Kazakhstan and the measures taken to increase investment attractiveness, focusing on the relevance of finding reliable financial instruments, including the opportunities for developing Islamic banking tools. For the countries of the Central Asian region, as well as its closest neighbors, the Astana International Financial Center is one of such instruments, whose goal is to become a regional hub of Islamic banking by 2025.

An exchange of views took place on the participation of Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE) in the XIII meeting of the Astana Economic Forum, which will be held in May 2023 in the capital of Kazakhstan.

Particular attention was paid to the cooperation in banking sector.   In particular, the Ambassador presented the investment potential of Kazakhstan and emphasized the opportunities for FIBE to participate in the implementation of investment projects for infrastructure development and the benefits of opening a bank branch in Kazakhstan.

The governor of the bank, in turn, expressed great interest in mutual cooperation by recognizing the importance and advantages of Kazakhstan as a strategic partner for building up mechanisms and tools for Islamic banking in the region.

Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt provides a full range of retail and corporate banking services and carries out investment activities both in the Arab Republic of Egypt and abroad. FIBE has 48 branches, the number of client accounts has exceeded 1.9 million accounts and bank's total assets have reached the equivalent of 132.6 billion Egyptian pounds.

As per results of 2021, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt was ranked first in The Banker’s Top 100 African Banks ranking according to The Banker Magazine and has been added to the Top 50 Banks List in the Middle East according to the Forbes Middle East.