RABAT: The first house of Morocco’s parliament approved a bill to allow the establishment of Islamic banks and enable private companies to issue Islamic debt after months of delays.

The bill still needs to be passed in a final vote in the second house in the coming weeks.

Lawmakers in the first house voted unanimously in favor of the law.

“The bill has passed (in the first house) by 75 votes and no one was against it,” Said Khairoune, the head of parliament’s economics and finance committee, said.

The bill will allow foreign banks as well as local lenders to set up Islamic banks in Morocco.

The central bank has started to set up a central sharia board with the country’s body of scholars to oversee the Islamic finance sector.

Seven scholars and financial experts have started training to become members of the board, sources have said.