CAIRO: Mubasher Trade, the Middle East's first e-trading company, launched Mubasher Islami, a new division which specializes in Sharia-compatible services in Egypt. The new service has been active since the beginning of the month, however, according to Ihab Rashad, managing director of Mubasher Trade in Egypt, the company did not announce the idea until they were “fully ready” to welcome more clients. “We started this idea in the UAE and it succeeded, so we decided to implement it here in Egypt,” Rashad told Daily News Egypt. “It's a new service; we are the first to launch it in the country.” In order to activate the service, clients simply need to request the service on their account via the internet and the system takes it from there. Once the user signs up for the service, any time they want to trade stocks, the system will remember their preference and only show them the “Sharia-compatible” companies. “We have Islamic shares available, the client requests this option, and then we activate it,” said Rashad. “Once we activate it, and once they request a non-Islamic share, the system rejects it, the system will know what they chose and serve them on this basis.” Mubasher Islami, which is free of additional charges and requires no paperwork, gives clients the option to trade and invest in the market while not having to worry about the legitimacy of their funds. “Mubasher continues to introduce more value-added facilities with the launch of Mubasher Islami, which provides a dedicated trading platform for financial market players in Egypt who want to invest in Sharia-compliant securities,” Malek Kanawati, CEO of Mubasher, said in a statement. As many interested clients have already been requesting the option of Islamic trading, Rashad believes that the new system will cater to the needs of investors in Egypt. “We've gotten calls asking from several clients who are very interested in the new idea,” he said. “Sharia is very important to Egyptians, the idea of halal profit is important to people.” He believes that Mubasher Islami could also encourage Muslim investors who may have stayed away from the market before. “Today, many people might stay away from the stock exchange thinking the funds that will be coming from it are illegitimate or non-Islamic,” he said. “We give them the option of knowing where their money is going and that the income coming from their investment is halal and compatible with Islamic law.” In order to decide what is compatible with Sharia, the company, which has no Islamic or Sharia committee available in Egypt, takes advice from several Islamic banks based in Saudi Arabia. “We have an agreement with the banks and companies,” said Rashad. “Our banks are Islamic banks and they advise us to help us set up a rule system that rule out companies that are not compatible with Sharia law.” In order to successfully categorize the companies, the Saudi-based banks study each company's income very closely. According to Rashad, the Sharia system says that a committee should study the income background of each company involved in the process, thoroughly examining where the company's income is originating. “This committee studies the interest associated with the company's funds, the ranking of the company, any income coming in to the company in order to see if this profit is compatible with Sharia law,” said Rashad. “Every dirham or riyal is studied, then the committee categorizes this company labeling it as Islamic or non-Islamic based on its findings.” Mubasher Islami, which is managed by Mubasher Trade, a subsidiary of Mubasher Financial Services, operates in all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as well as Egypt and various other international markets. Currently, the new trading platform offers clients 48 “Islamic” shares compatible with the Sharia.
