Entrepreneur To Open Islamic Bank in France
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A Syrian-born entrepreneur says he’s seeking to open France’s first Islamic bank and has applied for a license from the Bank of France.
Fehmy Saddy, the president of closely held FS International Partners, wants to start Tayssir Bank and said he started talks with the French central bank in mid-2005.
“Initially, we got a negative reaction as they thought Islamic banking would be about financing terrorist activities,” Mr. Saddy said. “So we explained it in the context of the well-established tradition of cooperative, or mutuel, banks to serve a community.”
