Enormous Opportunities for Islamic Banking in France

Chief Executive Officer of the Franco-American Alliance for Islamic Finance (FAAIF) Camille Silla Paldi said that there are enormous opportunities for Islamic banking in France.

In an article about Islamic finance in France, Ms. Paldi explained that the enormous opportunities for Islamic banking in France are made available thanks to the magnitude of the French financial market, which is the world's fourth largest economy and the leading financial market in the Eurozone, along with the desire to attract funds from the Gulf and Asia capital, as well as the large number of Muslims in the country”

She noted that her deep knowledge of France makes her certain that Islamic banking will have a widespread acceptance if people are acquainted with the values it bears and shares with other faiths, especially Christianity and Judaism, as well as its ability to strengthen economic growth and the distribution of wealth to all segments of society.

She said that France's former Finance Minister and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde had earlier called for the dissemination of Islamic finance in France, especially its finance mode based on profit and loss sharing not interest-based mode, which would certainly enhance the real economy.

According to an article by Paldi, published by The EIN Presswire and broadcast by CNN, the first Islamic Sukuk of not more than $ 6 million, which was in the fast food sector, had been issued in 2011. Since then, issuance of Sukuk has remained more modest compared to the wide-ranging opportunities despite the fact that two Sukuk issues followed the first one at a later date.

France has previously adopted legal amendments aimed at facilitating Islamic financial operations and the inclusion of Sukuk in the French stock market. Also, it has developed a special system of taxation to facilitate the work of the Islamic financial institutions. Furthermore, it has enabled the Islamic banks do a lot of operations, including all transactions with the exception of rent-to-own transaction.