State Duma committee head expects Islamic bank to appear in Russia in 2026

KAZAN. Dec 26 (Interfax) - An Islamic bank may appear in Russia in 2026, said Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market and chairman of the council of the Association of Banks of Russia.

"We are now actively working on creating an Islamic bank in Russia. We are conducting work with representatives of business, including business that, let's say, represents the Islamic population of our country," Aksakov said at the opening of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) representative center in Kazan.

"We are also conducting negotiations with Arab countries to create such a bank in Russia, and according to our plan, a subsidiary bank should be created in one of the Arab countries," he said.

Aksakov expects that this work will be completed in 2026. "The Central Bank of Russia, according to preliminary negotiations, supports us in this regard, and accordingly, an institution will be created that will give an additional impulse to the development of partnership financing in our country," he said.

The size of the partnership financing market is estimated at 1 trillion rubles, he said.

The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions is a non-profit international organization that develops standards for Islamic finance.