In fact, a poll was conducted two years ago among those interested in Islamic finance. Institutions and individuals were asked in 2010 whether they believed the Mega Bank would be set up that year. The majority, though modest, did not see it happening. But the MoU is reversing that trend.

Moreover, the issue of location has been settled and the new Mega Bank will be headquartered in Doha with branches across the Islamic world.

The MoU commits the three founders to underwrite half of the proposed $1 billion capital for the Mega Bank.

The bank would aim at funding infrastructure projects in Islamic states and is expected to work towards standardization of Shariah-compliant financial products. These are its main goals.

During the signing of the MoU in Khartoum on the sidelines of the IDB Group annual meeting recently, IDB President Ahmad Mohamed Ali said the new institution is expected to, “facilitate the establishment financial market amongst the Islamic banks and provide innovative solutions to manage liquidity through generation of assets and launching of an Islamic securities market.”

He said: “The Mega Islamic Bank comes as an initiative to address the dearth of senior financiers, the absence of the Islamic tools of stock exchange and the absence of market liquidity between Islamic banks.”

Aside from the procedural concerns, there are other issues such as finding skilled and professional staff. This is because Islamic finance has become a growing industry and big conventional banks are also now offering Islamic finance windows.

According to figures from the Islamic Council, assets of Islamic banks and financial institutions stand at $820 billion at present. And the total assets operating in line with Shariah principles would top $1.3 trillion if Islamic windows in conventional banks are also taken into consideration.

That is a huge volume of money and more skilled professionals are needed to manage these ventures.

A recent story in the New York Times highlighted a new phenomenon in the Wall Street where young Islamic bankers are trying to combine their professional banking training with a spiritual dimension. It said young Muslim bankers set up what they termed as a Muslim urban professional forum two years ago to discuss and exchange their experiences. Its membership has grown to more than 1,000 now. The story also noted that, for whatever reason, clients tend to believe religious bankers may have more integrity to a reasonable degree.

However, two more factors have to be borne in mind in discussing Islamic finance. The Arab Spring brought to the scene a clear Islamic orientation that would help shape events in places like Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and probably Syria in future. In fact, with the emergence of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), religion is taking a growing role and no longer modernism is expanding at the expense of religion.

The other factor is that Islamic finance has been in operation for more than three decades. The theory has been put to test and some criticism has been directed at Islamic finance.

One of those critics Saleh Kamel, chairman of Al-Baraka Group, who was blunt in saying that current Islamic finance practices — to a large degree — did not promote the true aims of Islam i.e. utilizing the economy to do real work and provide more opportunities instead of using money to generate more wealth.

It even moved to areas of derivatives that was — to a large degree — a major reason behind the financial and economic crises that have engulfed the world's major economies for more than four years now.

Kamel, however, is optimistic that the Mega Bank can help address the problems faced by Islamic finance by focusing more on development projects along recognized Islamic tenets for the benefit of the people — not one concerned mainly with the mechanics.

The Mega Bank may or may not provide answers to the problems facing Islamic finance, but it is more important to have a more open and transparent debate on its various issues.