Mathkur: Kuwait seeks to turn into hub for Islamic banking

Kuwait plans to be a regional hub for Islamic banking, said Head of the Supreme Consultative Committee on the Implementation of the Provisions of Shariah (Islamic Law) Khaled Al-Mathkur.
In statements to KUNA on the sidelines of his participation in the First Islamic Banking Conference, which concluded here Thursday, Al-Mathkur said Kuwait plans to benefit from the successes it achieved in this domain to materialize this goal.
"Kuwait's strategy now ensures co-existence and harmony between both Islamic and traditional banking systems," he said.
Al-Mathkur lauded the conference which highlighted the different aspects of Islamic banking systems.
The two-day conference, attended by religious scholars and economists from Kuwait, Qatar, Syria, Algeria, Britain, Malaysia and Jordan, discussed over two days, the most prominent challenges facing the work of Islamic banks, including dealing with the central banks and the issue of deposit insurance and capital adequacy.
In their final statement, the conferees asked the central banks to reconsider the legislations governing banks to take into account the peculiarities of Islamic banks and to set up special units at each central bank to supervise the performance of Islamic banks.
They urged the monetary authorities to introduce new regulations to guarantee that deposits are managed in accordance with Islamic law and protect all parties, to reconsider the rate of monetary reserves and compulsory capital adequacy ratio of Islamic banks in line with peculiarities of Islamic financing and investing products.
They also called for the development of governance standards for the terms of Islamic finance instruments and products.