Meezan Islamic Index Criteria revised

The Shariah Supervisory Board of Meezan Bank has revised the Meezan Islamic Index Criteria for screening stocks for Shariah-compliance, and decided to further improve the criteria of total debt-to-asset ratio from 40 percent to 37 percent. With the revision of this criterion, the companies, where interest-based debt to total assets are 37 percent or less, would be considered eligible for the purpose of Islamic mutual funds and Meezan Islamic index.
This decision was taken in the 17th Shariah Supervisory Board meeting of Meezan Bank Limited held at the Darul Uloom Korangi, Karachi. The meeting was chaired by former Justice Muhammad Taqi Usmani. Members of the Shariah Board included Sheikh Essam M. Ishaq (Bahrain) and Dr Muhammad Imran Usmani. The senior management of Meezan Bank, including Irfan Siddiqui, President and CEO, and Ariful Islam, Chief Operating Officer, were also present in the meeting.
This revision would encourage the corporate sector to shift toward Islamic banking to fulfil their financing needs. The Shariah Board praised the performance of the Bank and showed overall satisfaction on the Shariah-conformity of the products and overall business and transactions of Meezan Bank. Several important matters, including new products related to liquidity management using Sukuk and corporate financing were discussed and approved.
Meezan Bank is the first and largest Islamic Bank in Pakistan. The bank is now ranked as the 11th largest bank of the country in terms of branch network, boasting a network of 222 branches in 63 cities of Pakistan. Meezan Bank offers a complete range of Islamic banking products and services, including free online banking for all Pak rupee accounts at all its branches. The Bank's retail banking network is supported by 24/7 banking services that include over 170 ATMs, Internet Banking, Visa Debit Card and a 24-hour Call Centre. The Bank's Visa Debit Card allows its customers to shop at more than 30 million merchants world-wide and withdraw funds from their accounts from more than 1.4 million ATMs worldwide.-PR