Kazakhstan's largest bank by assets has secured shareholder approval to apply for a licence to conduct Islamic banking operations, in a move that would give Sharia-compliant finance access to the country's largest banking platform.

Shareholders at Halyk Bank voted to pursue the licence at an extraordinary general meeting on September 25, also approving amendments to the bank's charter to accommodate the planned Islamic banking activities.

Halyk will establish an Islamic Financing Principles Council to oversee compliance with Islamic finance requirements. Shareholders elected three members to serve on the one-year council: Aznan Hasan, a Malaysian academic and Islamic capital-markets specialist; Salim Al Ali, an expert in Islamic finance law and regulation; and Aida Othman, a specialist in Islamic banking law and financial regulation.

The council will assess whether the bank's proposed transactions and products conform to Islamic financing principles, including the prohibition of interest, or riba. No launch date for specific products has been announced. The additional licence is intended to enable the bank to serve retail and corporate customers seeking financing and investment products structured according to Islamic principles.

The application follows Kazakhstan's expansion of its Islamic banking framework, which now allows conventional banks to offer Sharia-compliant services through dedicated Islamic windows rather than requiring them to establish a separate Islamic bank. These operations must be separately accounted for and overseen through an independent governance structure. Kazakh banks became eligible to establish Islamic windows from January 16, 2026.

Fitch Ratings has noted that Kazakhstan's new banking law, enacted in March 2026, expanded the scope of Islamic banking by permitting conventional banks to open Islamic windows, and that the change could increase the availability of Islamic products and support market development in Central Asia.

Kazakhstan's Islamic banking sector has historically been small, with activity before the regulatory changes largely confined to specialised institutions including Zaman Bank and Al Hilal Islamic Bank. Al Hilal was rebranded as ADCB Islamic Bank in 2024 after its parent, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, shifted the Kazakh operation towards corporate and institutional banking.

Halyk's planned entry into the market could increase competition in asset-backed financing, leasing, trade finance and investment products structured to Sharia principles. The bank's decision comes as Kazakhstan seeks to strengthen its role as a financial and investment hub between Central Asia and the Gulf, where a larger Islamic banking market could help attract capital from Gulf-based institutions. The immediate next steps are expected to include completing the licensing process, creating separate accounting and operational arrangements for Islamic banking, and developing products subject to approval by the new council and Kazakhstan's financial regulator.

Saudi-based fintech firm Tabby has raised $233 million in a new equity round that values the company at $6.5 billion, as it moves beyond its buy now, pay later origins to build a broader financial services platform across Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Blue Pool Capital led the round, with existing shareholders HSG, Wellington Management and Arbor Ventures also participating. The capital will fund Tabby's next phase of growth as it rolls out consumer financing, business lending and digital wallet services following a series of new regulatory licences.

"We began with a button at an online checkout to help people spread costs over time. Everything since has come back to the same idea: people deserve more from their money. This round means we can build further on that, without changing how we think about growth or discipline," said Hosam Arab, CEO and co-founder of Tabby.

Founded in the UAE in 2019 and headquartered in Saudi Arabia since 2023, Tabby has been profitable since that year and now processes more than $18 billion in annualised transaction volume across 25 million registered users and 70,000 business partners. It became the Mena region's first fintech unicorn in 2023 after a funding round valued it at more than $1.5 billion.

The Saudi Central Bank has granted Tabby consumer and SME financing licences, enabling it to offer larger, longer-term loans to individuals and working capital solutions to businesses. The company also acquired Tweeq, a SAMA-licensed digital wallet, adding accounts, cards and money transfers to its offering. In the UAE, a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE has allowed Tabby to launch Tabby Cash, a fee-free alternative to a debit account offering cashback on purchases and local and international transfers.

The funding round includes a liquidity option for employees. Since 2023, Tabby has conducted share tenders enabling more than $100 million in employee share sales.

The raise comes as Saudi Arabia's fintech sector expands rapidly under the National Fintech Strategy. The number of licensed fintech companies reached 281 in August 2025, up from 82 in 2022, with a target of 525 by 2030.

"Tabby has demonstrated an impressive ability to innovate for their customers, evolving beyond payments to become the trusted platform for millions of people managing, spending and growing their money across the region," said Christopher Wu, chief investment officer at Blue Pool Capital.

Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Bangladesh have signed a $1 billion financing agreement to expand its eastern refinery project. 

The project, which is expected to be completed in five years, will add three million metric tons of annual refining capacity to reach 4.5 million metric tons per annum.

The upgraded refinery will process a broader range of crude oils and produce 15 types of refined petroleum products. It is expected to support a 5% reduction in the cost of major petroleum products and enable production to meet Euro 5 standards, replacing the current Euro 2 grade, the lender said in a statement. 

Local refining of imported crude oil is expected to save about $394 million in foreign exchange each year.

The $2.5 billion project comprises approximately $1.5 billion in contributions, including taxes, customs duty, and VAT from the Bangladesh government, complementing the $1 billion IsDB financing. 

"By expanding domestic refining capacity, the Eastern Refinery project will strengthen energy security, reduce dependence on imported refined petroleum products, and support cleaner fuel standards," said Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, IsDB Group chairman.

This financing will help build greater economic resilience and deliver lasting benefits for businesses, workers, farmers, and households across Bangladesh, he added. 

IsDB is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Jeddah, focusing on Shariah-compliant financing for infrastructure and socio-economic development. 

Vision Bank, an Abu Dhabi-based Islamic bank, has launched a Shariah-compliant trade finance solution for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to support cross-border flows. 

The new solution will focus on providing short-term trade finance to SMEs, originated through a multi-channel approach led by platform partnerships, the bank said in a statement. 

The bank said that it aims to support SMEs that require working capital linked to real trade flows as opposed to traditional balance-sheet lending criteria. The financing solution will support a more efficient approach to SME trade finance by assessing underlying trade transactions, relevant counterparties and associated credit risks. 

“The proposition is particularly relevant for exporters and SMEs in markets such as the GCC, India, Southeast Asia and other trade-driven economies, where businesses may face limited access to competitive US dollar financing through local channels,” the lender said. 

Vision Bank Limited is a Prudential Category 1 Islamic Financial Institution registered with Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and regulated by its Financial Services Regulatory Authority. The bank has regulatory permissions for accepting deposits, advising on investments or credit as well as providing credit, according to its website. 

“SMEs are increasingly operating across borders, platforms and supply chains, but access to short-term trade finance has not always kept pace with how these businesses work,” said Jeremy Parrish, chairman, Vision Bank.

“Vision Bank is introducing a platform-led SME financing proposition designed to support real trade flows across markets in a Shari’ah-compliant and commercially practical way.”

Vision Bank is owned by the GII Group, a Shari’ah-compliant alternative asset manager headquartered in the UAE. GII manages over $3 billion of assets across private equity, real estate, private credit and strategies on behalf of sovereign institutions, financial institutions and family offices in the GCC and internationally. 
 

Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has signed a preliminary agreement with AlRayan Bank to strengthen Islamic finance and local capital markets. 

The financial centre will promote AlRayan Bank as a strategic banking partner to licensed firms as well as encourage new QFC firms to bank with the Islamic lender. Meanwhile, AlRayan will offer customized banking services to QFC firms and their employees.

The MoU aims to support businesses through access to financial services, deeper collaboration on Islamic finance and capital markets, and knowledge-sharing programmes. It will also establish a framework for cooperation on preventing, detecting and mitigating financial crime risks, including money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud, QFC said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Mansoor Rashid Al-Khater, QFC CEO said that the partnership will help enhance the business environment for the QFC firms by expanding access to banking solutions and financial services, while fostering innovation across Islamic finance and capital markets.”

“By exploring the integration of our digital platforms, we aim to simplify account opening for QFC-registered entities, improve efficiency, and provide faster access to our banking services,” Fahad Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, group CEO at AlRayan Bank. 

QFC has recorded sustained growth over recent years, in tandem with regional rivals such as Dubai’s DIFC and Abu Dhabi’s ADGM. It onboarded 1,135 firms during the first half of 2026, rising 37% year-on-year to bring the total registered firms to over 4,700 at the end of June. 

QFC, which ranked third across MENA and 29th overall in the Global Financial Centres Index, contributed 2.2% to Qatar’s economy in 2024. 

Egypt accounts for 48% of the outstanding African sukuk market, as countries adopt sukuk issuances as an alternate source of funds, according to Fitch Ratings. 

Outstanding African sukuk crossed $7 billion in August 2026, up about 16% year on year. But it made up less than 1% of global sukuk outstanding, due to structural constraints.  

Egypt issued its debut US dollar sovereign sukuk in 2023 and is subsequently emerging as a regular and substantial issuer of US dollar sukuk following regulatory reforms and deepening ties with the six-nation GCC, the credit agency added. 

The North African country also issued its first local currency sukuk in 2025, which spilled over in the first half of the current year.  

Nigeria accounted for slightly more than a quarter of African sukuk outstanding, followed by South Africa (15%) and Benin (7%). Around $1 billion of African sukuk were issued so far in 2026, mainly by Benin and Egypt, compared with $3.3 billion in full-year 2025, according to Fitch. 

The Nigerian government has been issuing naira sukuk since 2017 while its parliament approved a plan in October 2025 that allows the government to borrow up to $2.85 billion on international markets. 

The $1.6 trillion, underdeveloped African debt capital market remains dominated by bonds, mostly concentrated in South Africa (39%), Egypt (18%), and Nigeria (9%). 

“Enabling regulation for sukuk is lacking in most African countries, while domestic Islamic financial institutions - which are typically key sukuk investors and issuers - are either small or absent,” the study said. 

Sukuk can help to diversify funding sources and attract demand from GCC and African Islamic banks, Sharia-compliant investment funds, and multilateral institutions.

Fitch rated around $3.7 billion of African sukuk outstanding at the end of the first half of the year, all of which were speculative grade. No rated African sukuk has defaulted to date.