Number of participants in Islamic banking experiment might include subsidiary of Iran’s bank

Miras finance company, a subsidiary of Iran’s Mir Business Bank has applied for entering a registry of the Bank of Russia to participate in a federal experiment in Islamic banking and is waiting for a response. Vice Director General and Manager of an additional office in Kazan Seyyid Saeid Waqili told Realnoe Vremya about it.

Miras sealed the first according to Islamic canons in Tatarstan in 2019 when an office of Mir Business Bank opened in Kazan. The company’s key deals are supervised by the Tatarstan Muslim Religious Directorate within Islamic agreements.

A renovated office of Mir Business Bank in Kazan where the vice minister of economy of Iran, director general of Bank Melli Iran, the country’s consul general in Kazan and so on.

According to Vice Director General and Manager of an additional office in Kazan Seyyid Saeid Waqil, the Russian Mir Business Bank is ready to provide services by Sharia law in many business areas and intends to “play a key role in developing of Islamic finance in Tatarstan and Russia.”

It should be reminded that the Islamic banking experiment has been held since 1 September and will last until 1 September 2025 on the territory of four pilot regions — Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Chechnya and Dagestan. Its interim results can already be summed up at KazanForum 2024. According to Tatarstan Rais Rustam Minnikhanov, “this is a significant instrument to expand cooperation with countries of the Islamic world.”

The opening of the bank’s branch is an indicator of our accurate and clear programme of actions, evidence of serious intentions in commercial and economic relations with Russia and Tatarstan, noted Vice Economy Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Sharifzadeh.

He said that the bank was going to refuse to use the dollar in settlement in favour of the two countries’ national currencies — ruble and riyal, which surprised have there be such transactions? And he confirmed at Mir Business Bank and the creation of Miras insurance company this can be transformed into a southern hub to provide financial services.

“I would be thankful to the Council of Ulems of Tatarstan for their call upon using Islamic finance,” he concluded.

Now the commodity turnover between Tatarstan and Iran is growing, and the activity of the bank helps it. According to the Tatarstan Ministry of Economy, if mutual trade provided $183 million last year, it has $133 million since the beginning of the year. Mir Business Bank’s Miras finance company is going to join the Islamic finance experiment.

“Your decision to open branches around the world is creating absolutely new conditions for global trade,” claimed head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Taliya Minullina when addressing Director General and Board Chairman of Bank Melli Iran Abolfazl Mahmoud Najarzadeh.

Minullina noted Mr Hazzar’s effective work as director general of MBB. Growth of Islamic finance at Miras FC that opened in Kazan in 2019 and the upcoming creation of an insurance company are among its results.