DOHA: The British Islamic Bank (BIB) held its general body meeting in London on Thursday. Among those present were Sheikh Khalid bin Thani al-Thani, deputy board chairman and ex-officio member of the Qatar International Islamic Bank and Dr Husain al-Abdullah, chairman of the board of directors of Masraf Al Rayan.
 The meeting was presided over by BIB’s board chairman, Muhsin Mustafa who said the bank had for the second consecutive year won the award for “The Best Islamic Bank in Europe”. Its clientele had increased from 14,000 in 2005 to 30,000 in 2006 and the number of accounts had risen to 50,000 which represented a 100% increase, Mustafa said. The bank’s assets amounted to tune of £120mn, he said, adding, deposits from customers were more than £83mn.
 He said the British authorities had been very co-operative especially with regard to taxes. The BIB is being treated on par with other traditional banks in all procedures concerning taxes. It had also been permitted to handle housing finance and commercial real estate financing on the basis of participation through tenders.
The BIB has recently opened a branch in Manchester city and has a total of eight branches in the UK - in London, Leicester, Birmingham and Manchester. It is the only Islamic bank in Britain that has been granted permission to offer integrated Islamic banking services