Islamic Bank cannot be called a Bank because of RBI guidelines but it looks like time has changed and Kerala may have first Islamic Bank Next year.
Islamic Bank cannot be called a Bank in India because of RBI guidelines to provide interests to customers and in Islamic banks you do not have the option for Interests. As so called Islamic Banks currently in India do not have the status of Bank most Islamic Bank are called Financial Institutes and cannot issue cheques. For Details read Islamic Banking.
But now it looks like there is a change and we may have first Islamic Bank in India.
The first Islamic bank in the country with active involvement of the Kerala government is likely to start operations in Kochi by next year as the bank’s registration formalities are currently being fulfilled on a war footing. The Kerala industries department is actively involved in the new initiative and a high level meeting held at Kozhikode on August 12 had approved a project report prepared by Ernst & Young.
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