JEDDAH, 26 February 2004 — A conference on Islamic banking will be held in Washington later this year with the backing of the US government. The aim, according to Saudi banker Saleh Kamel, is to restore the image of Islamic banks, tainted by Western charges that they have funded terror.

Kamel, who chairs the Bahrain-based General Council of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (IBFI), said Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, would also sponsor and chair a similar conference in London in May.

He said the Washington conference, to be held under the auspices of US Treasury Secretary John Snow, would coincide with the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the US capital.

The meetings are scheduled for Oct. 4-5.

The planned conference “will enhance the true image of Islamic banks, which are no less transparent than conventional banks, and which do not engage in any activity other than (regular) banking activities,” Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted Kamel as saying.

The hope is that the two conferences will demonstrate that Islamic banks, which grew to some 200 institutions with assets exceeding $250 billion in the past 25 years, have “overcome the crisis” sparked by Western charges following the Sept. 11 attacks that they funded terror groups, he said.

Dallah Al-Baraka Group, owned by Kamel, operates 17 Islamic banks in different countries.

Kamel said the World Bank has approved some of the Islamic banking systems. “We have a banking message and we have a financing ideology. We will be only happy when investors outside the Islamic world accept this ideology. We would deem it a success for us. We don’t consider that the entry of these investors would reduce our market share,” he said. The announcement on Washington conference was announced at a seminar on Managing Risks in Islamic Banking Services in Riyadh.

Opening the seminar, Hamad Al-Sayyari, governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, said Islamic banks had a bright future. He urged monitoring authorities to play a major role in helping Islamic banks manage their risks.

Sayyari praised the Islamic Banking Services Council’s efforts to promote the industry by achieving transparency and adopting international standards. Central banks in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and six other Muslim countries as well as the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank are members of the Council.