Egypt’s National Bank for Development (NBD), in co-operation with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Group has signed up to Standard Chartered's Islamic Euro Nostro account, which enables Islamic banks to earn Shariah-compliant profits on their account balances at the bank’s Frankfurt branch.

The Islamic Euro Nostro account will allow NBD to earn Shariah-compliant profits on its account balances at Standard Chartered Bank Germany Branch in Frankfurt, said a statement from the bank after signing the agreement at the recent banking summit 'SIBOS 2012' in Osaka, Japan.

NBD, a leading Egyptian lender, offers a broad spectrum of Shariah - compliant banking products and solutions for large corporate as well as individuals across all governorates.

The Standard Chartered Saadiq Euro Nostro Account utilises a Shariah-compliant account sweep facility. At the end of each business day, available EUR balance in NBD’s Saadiq clearing account will be invested using the Islamic finance mode of Murabaha.

The profit generated from these transactions will be credited on a monthly basis, said Motasim Iqbal, the regional head of transaction Banking, Financial Institutions, Mena and Pakistan, Standard Chartered Bank.

"We would like to congratulate NBD for benefiting from this unique Shariah-compliant structure. The Islamic Euro Nostro Account is an industry first and was designed to bring value to our bank clients," said Iqbal.

"With a strong on the ground presence in the region, global network and innovative Shariah Compliant products and services, we are ideally positioned to provide support to our bank clients,” he added.

According to Iqbal, the Saadiq Euro Nostro Accounts will be available to clients globally, across Standard Chartered’s entire network.

The facility allows financial institutions to earn profits on available euro balances in their accounts and provides Shariah-compliant account reporting statements as well as a full range of commercial and treasury payment capabilities.

It also provides a full suite of beneficiary deduction and principal protected products for incoming and outgoing payments and the ability to customize transaction fees on multiple levels – by customer, beneficiary, country, branch or code word.-TradeArabia News Service