BankIslami, Pakistan’s leading Islamic financial
institution, has become the first Islamic Bank to have successfully structured
and disbursed Pakistan’s first Shariah-compliant Electronic Warehouse Receipt
(EWHR) financing issued under the repository system managed by Naymat Collateral
Management Company Limited.
To facilitate farmers & aggregators to avoid distress
sales during the harvesting period, SECP issued Collateral Management Company
(CMC) Regulations in the Year 2019 to create an enabling environment and
accredit warehouses for the storage of different commodities.
Naymat Collateral Management Company Limited (NCMCL), the
first CMC of Pakistan registered under the said regulations, is authorized to
accredit warehouses to accept & store commodities, and issue Electronic
Warehouse Receipts (EWHR) through a digital repository system duly connecting
all relevant stakeholders, including Warehouse Operator, Depositor, Bank and
CMC.
Banks can access the system to accept EWHR for financing to
their customers, as per their credit policy, against stored commodities.A
ceremony was held at BankIslami – Head Office, Karachi to commemorate this
first of its kind Shariah compliant EWR financing transaction. The ceremony was
attended by President & CEO BankIslami, Syed Amir Ali and Shakaib Arif, CEO
NCMCL along with other senior officials from both entities. BankIslami is among
the nation’s leading Banks with the highest number of depositors’ accounts
operating with NCMCL for financing under EWHR regime.
Syed Amir Ali, President & CEO BankIslami, congratulated
the NCMCL team for taking this important initiative to strengthen the most
important link of Pakistan’s Agriculture value chain and making EWHR financing
a success.
He emphasized that agriculture is the main stay of
Pakistan’s economy providing food security so any investment in the sector will
not only benefit farmers to enhance the crop yield but also help Pakistan to
generate foreign exchange through surplus exports.
He further stated “BankIslami is keenly focusing on the
agriculture sector and consistently growing its Agri portfolio by facilitating
farmers through its 340+ branches in more than 123 cities, while offering
excellent turnaround times, especially in terms of Shariah Compliant EWR Financing”.