By Douwe Miedema, European Wealth Management Correspondent
ZURICH (Reuters) - Geneva-based Faisal Private Bank wants to set up shop in Malaysia, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, luring wealthy Muslim clients on the home turf of its parent company Ithmaar Bank ITHMR.BH.
Switzerland's first fully Islam-compliant bank combines that feature with the sound financial reputation of a Western bank under Swiss management, its chief executive told Reuters.
"We are sharia-compliant and when we became a bank we had a large increase in the number of accounts because of that fact," Marco Rochat said in an interview.
"We have people who had cash at home, or in non-interest bearing accounts," he said.
Devout Muslims may hesitate to put money in Western banks despite the fact that most of them offer products approved by Islamic scholars, because their business is based on charging interest, which Islam forbids.
"We do not recognize interest. When a clearing account generates interest, it does not go to the profit and loss, but I put it into a fund for charitable work," Rochat said.
Switzerland, easily the largest destination for private wealth parked abroad, is hugely popular with Middle-Eastern clients for its stable politics, banking secrecy and deep financial know-how.
Obtaining a banking licence in 2006, Faisal Private Bank has gathered 820 million Swiss francs ($758.5 million) in client assets, a humble sum even in Switzerland's fragmented banking landscape where hundreds of small players abound. Continued...
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