Kazakhstan has no immediate plans to issue new licences to conventional foreign banks but may approve a second Islamic bank this year, the country's deputy prime minister said on Sunday. "The second Islamic bank could be opened this year," Aset Issekeshev told Reuters in Abu Dhabi. He declined to give details. "After the crisis, it is not a simple issue. A stable banking system is important for us," he said.
Malaysian trustee firm Amanah Raya Bhd expects to obtain licences to set up Kazakhstan's second Islamic bank in the second quarter of 2011, a Malaysian newspaper said earlier this month.
Seeking to diversify its financial industry after a banking crisis, energy-rich Kazakhstan is drawing on Arab and Malaysian investment in an effort to build an Islamic finance industry among its 13 million Muslims.