The elected board of directors also held their first meeting to discuss several issues, including the election of the chairman of the Board, with the board electing Abdul Latif A. Janahi for this position and Adnan Abdul Qader Al Musallam as vice-chairman. Hussain Al Khaja, a Bahraini, was appointed chief executive of the bank. The board also confirmed the selection of the bank's headquarters on the fifth floor of Zamil Tower, which was prepared earlier with bank employees already working in it.
Abdul Latif A. Janahi, chairman of Investment Dar Bank, said that the founders of the bank are Islamic institutions and skilled individuals with extensive experience in Islamic financial Industry.
"Research has shown that three quarters of Muslims would prefer to deal with Islamic banks. For example, there are a large number of companies now owned by Muslims in Britain, as many as up to 100,000. Many of these companies want to convert to Islamic banking transactions, as indicated in the research. Islamic financial services attract non-Muslims in Islamic countries and non-Muslim countries," Janahi said.
"From this perspective we see that the number of Islamic banks is not enough to deliver financial services to the potential Islamic market in the GCC, as the number of Islamic banks form 10 per cent of the number of conventional banks."
Over the past ten years, the assets of Islamic banks have grown at a rate of between 10 to 15 per cent and are expected to continue at a similar growth rate, which makes us expect that Islamic bank assets will reach $4.8 trillion by 2015. Kuwait-based Investment Dar company owns 31 per cent of the capital of the bank and manages an estimated $15 billion in associated projects and assets. It owns more than 40 per cent of Bahrain Islamic Bank, and 12.5 per cent of Sham Bank in Syria.