BELIEVING IN SHARIAH BANKING DID NOT YET TRANSLATE INTO A WORKABLE FRENCH SECTORFor more than 20 years, French banks have offered their expertise in financing operations (BNP Paribas Najmah, Crdit Agricole) for top companies or government projects in the GCC region. They are although a major actor of the Takaful industry (AXA, SCOR). If French companies were able to provide solutions abroad, it nevertheless appears that the only country where there are not yet operating in is, of all places, France. But thats about to change.
FIRST FRENCH PRODUCTS IN ISLAMIC FINANCE In 2007, the French regulator, namely the AMF, was the first to move forward when it published a regulatory instruction concerning funds. At this time, Islamic finance was unknown in France but lead by the French banks, the AMF introduced a little revolution by authorizing funds to use non-financial criteria in their fund management constraints. In order to be fully Shari'ah compliant, it added to the rule the possibility for funds to distribute at most 10% of their annual benefits to a third party which would not be part of the fund shareholders but regulated under the French law. This allowed funds to give non-Shari'ah benefits to charity organisations at the end of each business year. Following the introduction of this new rule, 14 Islamic funds and trackers have been listed in Paris since then and many more are in the process of being listed. (source)
