National Commercial Bank, or NCB, the largest bank in Saudi Arabia, has decided that it will become a fully Islamic bank in the next five years. The state-run bank’s decision came in the midst of a $6 billion IPO, the largest ever equity sale in the Arab financial world, which came in for criticism by some members of the Council of Senior Scholars, the country’s highest reglious body, which said it will not be possible to invest in the bank’s share offer because much of its business in non-Islamic. The bank has assets worth $116 billion. The bank has been working on the basis of Shaira banking guidelines, but it has been following several western banking conventions as well.
