Badr-Forte capitalises on oil boom

Russia's sole Islamic bank, Badr-Forte Bank, reported a dramatic increase in turnover for the first nine months of 2000 resulting from the recent surge in oil prices causing the Russian economy to be awash with liquidity. The Bank has been increasing its capital base cautiously and, equally cautiously, increasing its trade financing in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Return on financing is slightly up. According to President and CEO Adalet Djabiev, the bank has been increasing its involvement in Russian-Bangladeshi trade, having just extended a shari`a-compliant US $4.4m revolving import finance facility to the leading Russian trader with Bangladesh. Volume is expected to double next year. The bank's participation in international trade fairs to promote Islamic banking is aggressive. (Its very active www.forte-bank.ru, is ranked among the top 15 Russian business websites.) To cope with increased business, the bank is recruiting staff, but finding it difficult to get bilinguals