Omniyat Holdings, the parent company of Omniyat Properties, plans to start a regional Islamic mortgage finance company with a capital of more than $1 billion by year-end or early 2009.

“We are doing the paperwork for it now and have begun the initiation to enter into this field,” Mehdi Amjad, president and chief executive officer of Omniyat Holdings, was quoted as saying in an Emirates Business interveiw.

“It will be a regional firm, but we are yet to decide where the holding company is going to sit. Our aim is to become an owner, investment banker, fund manager, developer, operator and consumer financer," he said.