Gatehouse Bank, the wholesale Islamic bank based in the UK, will launch a Sharia-compliant Structured Trade Finance Fund early next year with wholesale Islamic market intermediary DDCA Limited.

The fund will invest capital in structured trade finance transactions in order to inject new flows of capital into the global marketplace, it was announced at the World Islamic banking Conference yesterday (December 7).

Currently, as a result of the credit crisis, many western banks operating in this sector are restricted in their trade finance activities and the creation of an Islamic fund to service this sector would have worldwide benefits, providing liquidity to a market that has been seriously constrained.

The Structured Trade Finance Fund is deliberately designed as a clear-cut and accessible approach to financing, facilitating the natural flow of business and kick-starting credit flow in the real economy.

"Given the liquidity challenges that many banks are experiencing, the Sharia-compliant fund has been launched at a time that will help alleviate the lack of capital available for transactions," said Gatehouse Bank chief executive officer Richard Thomas. – TradeArabia News Service