CLC Islamic Finance celebrates first anniversary

The Islamic Business Division (IBD) of Commercial Leasing & Finance PLC (CLC) successfully completed its first year in operations embodying a remarkable financial performance.  Embarking on another revolutionary financial service provision, CLC unveiled ‘CLC Islamic Finance’ in July 2015 despite of challenging economic conditions remained during the time to offer a complete range of Shari’ah compliant products. 
IBD formed a Shari’ah Supervisory Board with locally and internationally recognized 03 Scholars namely Ash-Shaikh Fazil Farook (Chairman), Ash-Shaikh Murshid Mulaffar (Member) and Ash-Shaikh / Mufthi Shafique Jakhura (Member) to ensure the compliancy in each transaction. Further, the business unit marked its segregation clearly to make the operation fully Shar’ahcompliant and acceptable. IBD was commenced with a fully-fledgedproduct range to serve all customer requirements such as, Profit Sharing Investments & Saving Accounts (Mudharabah), Term Investments (Wakala-Investments), Leasing (Ijarah), Trade Finance (Murabaha), Property & Working Capital Finance (D.Musharakah), Business & Working Capital Finance (Wakala-Lending).
To date, CLC-Islamic Finance have recorded a phenomenon growth in terms of business volumes, market reach, customer service and staff development. CLC Islamic Finance services are available at all 60 CLC branches in addition to “Dedicated Islamic Finance customer touch points” island wide.  
The Director/Chief Executive Officer, Krishan Thilekaratne stated that, “CLC IBD has performed commendably during its very first year whilst maintaining its impeccable compliance standards. It has been able to offer financial solutions such as term investments, leasing, trade finance, business & working capital finance and so on and has also been able to extend the product offerings through all 60 branches. No doubt CLC Islamic Finance will become a significant player in the Islamic Finance market in the near future”.
At the end of the first year, IBD posted a portfolio of Rs. 1.55 billion subsidized by the rapidly grown deposit base and the solid seed capital of the entity. 
Sharing his views; the Head of IBD, Ilsam Awfer stated “We are happy to complete one year in operations successfully with many milestones. CLC-Islamic Finance earned a plenitudeof acceptance island-wide within a short span”. Further he added “Though IBD is a new kid on the block, it will grow into greater heights and penetrate the market with the support of existing CLC brand”.