Rabat - BMCE bank is reportedly planning to create a new subsidiary specializing in Islamic finance.
The group owned by the Othman Benjelloun, Morocco's richest man, will embark on a joint venture with Saudi Arabia's Al Baraka Banking Group to create a new subsidiary specializing in Islamic finance.
According to sources quoted by news website Le360, the Saudi group Al Baraka Banking Group, a world leader in the field of Islamic finance, will hold 51% of the new subsidiary while the Moroccan bank BMCE will hold the remaining 49%.
The same source added that several BMCE executives have received training on Islamic finance in Jordan and Turkey.
Last October, Brahim Benjelloun Touimi, Deputy CEO of BMCE Bank, expressed the willingness of the bank to engage in Islamic finance, but it took until November 2014, the date of the adoption of the law authorizing the creation of participatory banking by the parliament.