Islamic banking may come to Moscow and number of other Russian regions

In Russia, Islamic banking can spread to Moscow and other cities and regions of the country, Oleg Ganeev, Senior Vice President of Sberbank said.

Today, Islamic banking operates in four regions of the Russian Federation: Chechnya, Dagestan, Tatarstan and Bashkiria. The pilot project's territory should be expanded, Sberbank believes.

"First of all, the territory of Islamic banking can be expanded to those where there is a large proportion of Muslims, for example, the republics of the North Caucasus... And, of course, the pilot project should include Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Moscow region due to the large population. Many Muslims live there in absolute terms",

Ganeev said.

The experiment can also include those regions where shift workers work. These are the Volga region and the Far North.

To expand the pilot project, the necessary mechanisms in the law are being developed, Ganeev clarified in an interview with RIA Novosti at the Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum.