Sharia-Compliant Banking

Consider again Canada's reluctance to support the US in Iraq, when there are business activities like in the region like these.

Backed by the strong expertise of its Business lines and the long-term relationship built with financial institutions across the world, by its dedicated coverage team, the Financial Institutions Group, BNP Paribas have extended its capabilities in order to broaden its offer in Sharia-Compliant products.

Indeed, on June 17th 2003, BNP Paribas officially announced the set up of a specific Islamic Banking Unit headed by Jean-Marc Riegel and assisted by Amin Raad, to provide its clients throughout the world with such type of investments.

Due to the pioneer position of Bahrain Financial Centre in the Islamic Banking world, BNP Paribas has decided that its global platform for Sharia-compliant products would be based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and would focus mainly, but not only, on Middle Eastern and South East Asian markets.

Given the steady growth of the past decades, it became strategically clear that a dedicated Unit needed to be set up in order, first of all, to combine BNP Paribas' in-house Islamic capabilities and second, to expand the already broad range of products available.

[...]

Understanding the relationships between large Canadian corporations, Canadian government and UN officials adds additional insight into Canada's role in Iraq.