Ahlibank Set To Launch Islamic Banking Services
Ahlibank is set to launch it’s Islamic Banking services window across Oman under the Al Hilal Islamic Banking services brand. Al Hilal Islamic Banking services will provide Islamic banking products and services built on the tenants of truth and transparency in banking and will be fully segregated from the conventional branches. The bank will be launching six branches from the very start covering a wide geographical area in the Sultanate and will be providing a full-fledged banking experience with a full tray of products to both retail and commercial customer from the launch.
Al Hilal Islamic Banking services will be launching six branches which include Bahla, A’Rustaq, Saham, Salalah, Samail and Muscat along with a vast variety of products simultaneously in the coming few days providing the people of Oman with the opportunity to bank with Islamic Principles and insure that the tenants of truth and transparency are evident in all of its products and services.
Abdullah al Jabri, DGM at Ahlibank commented on what to expect from Al Hilal Islamic Banking services “Islamic finance, by its very nature, is a financial system that highlights the importance of aligning the objectives of businesses with the needs of the community to ensure that the overall well being of society is not forgotten when pursuing investment opportunities.”
” Our products are designed to highlight both the social and economic side of Islamic banking. We will be starting off with six branches from day one, and these branches will be ready to provide all of our products which include retail and commercial products from the very start.”
Jabri also added “We have been gearing up for the last year to insure a smooth start to our Islamic banking services, our focus was to educated the market about Islamic banking and thus we conducted a number of educational seminars around the country to increase awareness about Islamic banking. As one of the leading Bank’s in the country we wanted to be able to cater to the needs of all our customers whether individuals or companies from the very start of our operations”.
“Our focus during the last year has been on training our staff and insuring that our products and services not only serve the requirements of our customers but also provide them with the comfort of banking within Islamic principles. We believe that a well-equipped, knowledgeable workforce is vital for successful operations, we always strive to provide the best possible service to our customers and it’s vital that the staff members dealing with them have substantial knowledge about Shari’a principles, models and structures. We are proud to say that we had set a very high benchmark for the training needs of our staff and have achieved it, we had 21 staff members who achieved Islamic bankers certification at the start of 2011 and now we have over 40 certified Islamic bankers in our ranks.”
“One of the unique and salient characteristics of Islamic banking is the integration of ethical and moral values with the banking operations”, Al Jabri said.
Oman Daily Observer
