IBB marks fifth year anniversary

by Richard Kilner

Story link: IBB marks fifth year anniversary

Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) will celebrate its fifth anniversary tomorrow, after it became Europe’s first stand alone Islamic retail bank in 2004.

The official celebrations of the bank coincide with Eid, Arabic for ‘festivity’, the second of the year (Eid-ul-Adha) that marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj).

To this day IBB is the first and only stand alone Islamic retail bank in both the UK and Europe.

During the last five years it has amassed the largest Islamic savings and mortgages range in the UK, and a customer base of over 48,000 including non-Muslims attracted by its ethical and competitive approach.

IBB also has online and telephone facilities to provide customers with a comprehensive service offering.

In addition, Islamic banking has stood up well to the financial crisis due to its disinterest in usury and therefore its lack of SIVs, CDOs and other complex financial products that sowed the seeds of the crisis.

In June IBB was named the UK’s Best Islamic Financial Institution in the Global Finance magazine awards.

Commercial Director Sultan Choudhury has expressed his pride at the firm’s continuing successes, particularly its recent robustness in the face of the financial crisis.