Tuesday, January 16, 2007

KFH buys stake in RHB, Islamic credit cards, Miscellany

Kuwait Finance House buys stake in RHB

Despite the denials issued yesterday, Kuwait Finance House announced it had reached a Memorandum of Understanding for the purchase of 32.8% of Rashid Hussain Bhd Group, parent company of RHB Islamic Bank from Utama Banking Group.

Shari'ah-compliant credit cards

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has concluded its drawing
for monetary prizes for using its Shari'ah-compliant credit card. They note that
"All ADIB contracts, operations and transactions are carried out under the Islamic Shari'a principles with a strong focus on customer needs and innovative products and services in order to provide a customer focused ethical banking solution. [...] ADIB’s lines of products and services are 100% Shari’a compliant and offer the lowest profit rates available."

The idea of a Shari'ah-compliant credit card seems to stretch the credulity of Islamic finance as something more than myopic reductionism towards a focus on the term 'interest', rather than the concept of exploitative, usurious lending behavior. In the previous description, the difference between the Islamic and conventional product is the word 'profit' being used instead of 'interest'. To add what is essentially a lottery to the credit card adds to the image of a product missing the intent of the prohibition of riba.

Miscellany

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BIsB) announced a 77 percent increase in profits in 2006.

Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) voted Best Islamic Rating Agency in a poll from Islamic Finance News.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Such interesting offering... Well, let me ask. Can I use this compliant credit card everywhere? As far as I know there was alike credit card but it was accepted by limited amount of banks. It was not convenient.