At a Central Bank press conference on October 21, the Chairman of the Central Bank Mamarizo Nurmuratov said that today work has begun on the establishment of Islamic windows in 14 banks, which will provide loans on the basis of Islamic principles.

“Islamic banks are working to set up Islamic windows in 14 banks. The banks of Islamic countries have their own peculiarities. For example, in order to issue a loan based on Islamic principles, the resource provided to the consumer must also be attracted on the basis of Islamic principles. That is, if I give you a loan based on Islamic principles with an interest deposit, you may not get it. Because attracting deposits is not in line with Islamic principles. In this regard, first of all, we need to do some work to increase literacy in Islamic finance,” the CB Chairman said.

He noted that the bill on Islamic finance had passed its first reading in the Legislative Chamber.

“In this bill, we have allowed microfinance institutions to conduct operations on Islamic finance. We are in the process of developing relevant regulations. The main thing that I have not noticed so far is that a Muslim fatwa office is also needed for the development of Islamic finance. Muslim authorities in Malaysia and Indonesia have such fatwas. So this is a very complex and delicate process. Without paying attention to these subtleties, we will not be able to achieve the desired result by saying that it has become an Islamic bank. It is necessary to do this step by step and open a window of Islamic finance in commercial banks after microcredit organizations,” Mamarizo Nurmuratov said.

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Ilkhom Norkulov attributed the lack of development of Islamic finance in Uzbekistan to the “complexity” of the Islamic financial system, low public confidence in banks and low financial literacy.