A Banker's Tryst with Philanthropy : Islamic Voice

By Maqbool Ahmed Siraj

Islamic banking is only nominally?different from conventional banking and?the element of interest gets camouflaged.?For suave, soft- spoken and everpensive

Abdul Hamid Taylor,?life has been a multi-tiered?escalator, offering one station?after another, each elevating?him to a newer height. A ?banker?by choice, qualification and?training, Hamid having dealt?with money in ample measure,?is now looking to a future in ?disbursing much of what he?earned for himself.?General Manager at Abu?Dhabi?s Finance House at a time?when his plea for giving him a ??final respite from a 43-career?is being stonewalled, Hamid is?contemplating a life devoted to?philanthropy and social service?in ?Bangalore. Though he?acquired a house in Bangalore?some decades ago, it is only now?that it is being dusted off and?receiving a fresh coat of paint?for his several short sojourns to?dispense off what he gathered?over the long years.?Rooted in Kerala ancestry,?Hamid?s parents had moved to?Mumbai from Kannur to ensure?their kids a future no other city in?India could promise then. Born,?bred and ?educated in that urbs?prima, he did his family proud?by topping the promotional?exam of the Bank of India in?1972 after having earned ?his?M. Com, LLB and CAIIB.?Oil boom had brightened the?prospects in the Gulf by the mid?1970s and Hamid took wings?shortly ?thereafter to anchor?himself in Dubai, the hub of the?new economic dynamism in the?region. He served short stints in?Mashreqbank ?(Bank of Oman?then) and still later Union Bank?of the Middle East rechristenedEMIRATESNBD chaired by?Late Abdul Wahab Galadhari. ??Still later, having been picked upby tycoon Mohammed Abdullah?Al-Qubaisi of the National bank?of Abu Dhabi he was carried?to the ?Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank?and then to Finance House. ?It?was a company of trust that has?endured for over two decades?,?he observes.

A pragmatist at heart, Hamid is?fastidious to the core when it comes?to money and its deployment?and is not amenable to emotions.?Though he served as a senior vice?president of the Abu?Dhabi Islamic Bank?between 1999 and?2004, he came out?unconvinced of the?way it is envisioned in?a world in the throes?of transformation?due to fast-paced?t e c h n o l o g i c a l?changes.?The stint served him well ?for it?was during the same period that?this Bank joined a syndicate?of seven banks to finance the?communication satellite ?Thuraya??by the UAE telecom company?Etisalat. The financial structure was?an innovation. The Islamic Bank?s?relevance grew after 9/11 when ?several Western banks backed out?from projects in the Middle East.?Some good homework by Hamid?and his group won the Islamic ?Bank some mega projects such as?generation of water and power for?Abu Dhabi. In fact one of these?projects was adjudged the ?Best?Structured Deal? by the magazine?Euromoney in 2001. This enabled?them to clinch another $2.9 billion?independent water and power ?project in Abu Dhabi, which was?their biggest deal.?But, says Hamid, successes?mainly came their way by?structuring the deals rather ?than?any inherent features of Islamic?banking. Hamid says he started as?an ignorant individual in Islamic?banking and found to his ?dismay?that not even the best sharia?scholars had much to offer by?way of explaining the mechanism?of the financial mechanism under?Islamic banking. ?At best, they ?were merely playing with words?and emotions and offered little by?way of any real alternative to the?conventional banking?, he adds.?Hamid says, Islamic banking as?practiced now, is only nominally?different from the conventional?banking and element of interest?get camouflaged.?He offers an instance. An individual?borrowed $50 million from the?Islamic Bank. ?The Bank asked him ?to sell his building to them without?the sale being formally registered?and also allowing the ?sellers? to?use it under ?a lease agreement on?rent. ?Now the rent that the bank?earned during the period was a?substitute for interest and it was?fixed according ?to LIBOR (London?Interbank Offered Rate). Tell me?how does it materially differ from?a straight loan?, he questions.?He says, ??According to Justice?Taqi Usmani, time value of money?is not permissible under sharia?banking and most Islamic banks?flagrantly ?violate this principle as?time is a vital element?of any financial deal.?Since, a vital element?is being ignored, a?lot of things which?were prohibited under?Islamic banking, have?become permissible?over the years.??Yet Hamid is not?willing to give up ?all hope on Islamic banking. He ?feels that two important concepts?i.e., Musharaka (partnership) and?Mudaraba (joint venture) have?some useful features ?which can?be developed into useful financial?products provided the Islamic?sharia is codified. ?Every single?institution interprets the ?sharia?according to his own lights and in?an interconnected world it serves?no purpose as two interpretations?are never compatible. ?he Gulf?people cannot touch the Malaysian ?Islamic banks even with a barge?pole simply because it hardly?bears any semblance of sharia?with them,? he remarks.?Elaborating further, he says,??Success of Musharaka and?Mudaraba is heavily reliant?on Islamic bankers coming?out of traditional mindset and?are prepared to take additional?risk. Tawarruq or ?Commodity?Murabaha? which is very widely?used by Islamic Banks is heavily?criticized by Shariah scholars.??However, Hamid points out that?Bahrain has initiated establishment?of an institute for formulating?procedure of accounting and?bringing in standardization of?documentation.?In a banker?s career spanning?over 43 years, Hamid has earned?impeccable credentials both with?is bosses and clients. His current?employer Al-Qubaisi, Chairman?of the Finance House, finds him?irreplaceable, given his integrity?and would not let him retire and?go.?Meanwhile, Hamid has begun?his ?forays into his motherland?to do something to lift the social?underbelly from the morass of?poverty, illiteracy and diseases.?His Taylors ?& Meerans Charitable?Trust funds education for nearly?300 children in Bangalore in?various disciplines. ?I feel, I can?return my due to ?the society in?some insignificant measure this?way?, he told this scribe when he?was here last month.?Mr. Abdul Hamid Taylor can be?reached at hamidtaylor@fh.ae

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Source: http://islamicvoice.com/islamicvoice/a-bankers-tryst-with-philanthropy/

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