Rabat- After months of delay, the first house of the Moroccan parliament approved a governmental bill on Wednesday to establish and regulate Islamic banks. The new rules are to regulate the Islamic banking activity and the Islamic debt issues for private companies that respect the principle of Islamic finance.
Lawmakers in the first house voted unanimously in favor of the law. “It was passed by 75 votes, with no one against, while 19 opposition deputies did not vote,” reported Daily Attajdid newspaper. The bill allows foreign banks as well as local lenders to set up Islamic banks in the kingdom of Morocco. Under the new law, Islamic Banks can provide their services to customers in three modes.
The first is Mudaraba, which is a contract that offers specialist investment by a financial expert in which the bank and the customer shares any profits.
The second mode is Ijara, a contract that entitles the bank to buy an item for a customer and then lease it back over a specific period.
The third mode called Musharaka is a partnership contract whereby an Islamic bank and its clients can invest in a project. Under this partnership, profit sharing terms must be agreed in advance, and losses must be pegged to the amount invested.
Under the new bill, a new committee is to be set up by the Moroccan central bank with a government body of scholars which will be in charge of overseeing the conformity of the Islamic Banks’ activity to the Sharia Islamic law.
Although the bill has been approved by the majority of the deputies in the first house of the Moroccan parliament, it must still pass the second house in a final vote in the coming weeks.
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