Babacan: We will be the center of Islamic Finance

Speaking at a conference entitled "Islamic Finance Instruments: Expectations and Opportunities for Turkey" held by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan stated that the "Global Islamic Finance Unit" of the World Bank would be established in Istanbul. "We are establishing a Non-Interest Finance Research Center with a new project that we will perform in the Borsa Istanbul campus" said Babacan, adding that the agreement was executed with the World Bank and that they were now in the implementation stage. Pointing to the fact that the volume of Islamic Finance in the world had reached 1 trillion 300 billion dollars, Babacan said that this market was flourishing. However, Babacan commented that the share of this market in the global total finance system showed that there was a long way to go. Babacan stated that the growth rate of participation banks in Turkey was higher than the sector, but their share in the sector was below the desired level.