Islamic bank

KABUL: Afghanistan’s central bank has granted a license to the Islamic Bank of Afghanistan (IBA), the first lender in the country to apply the interest-free principles of Islamic finance in all its operations, a senior bank official told Reuters. The IBA was previously known as Bakhtar Bank and operated under a conventional banking license since it was acquired by Azizi Bank in 2009. The central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, granted the license on April 9 after the IBA completed the conversion of its balance sheet, said…

Commercial Bank of Kuwait, the Gulf state's fifth-largest lender by assets, has received regulatory approval to issue up to 120 million dinars ($425.8 million) of bonds, as it prepares to convert into an Islamic bank.