Hamas bank lends a hand to Gazans

by Nasser Najjar, Gulfnews Correspondent

from The Palestine Telegraph

Establishing a new bank anywhere in the world must be supported by a government and welcomed by the public and the economical system of the country. But maybe the only bank which wasn't treated in such way was the Islamic National Bank, established in Gaza.

The main problem is that it doesn't have a license from the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) which gives licenses and supervises the banking system in Palestine, after the Oslo agreement in 1993 and Paris economic agreement on 1994 between the Palestinians and Israelis.

The bank has sent its establishing papers to the Prime Minister's office in Gaza and they have given it authorisation to start banking activities in Gaza.

The PMA claims that the bank failed to produce accurate documents and therefore rejected their application. However, its clear that the bank is just another casualty of the ongoing inter-Palestinian division.

This bank was established in on December 16 2008 and has only one operating branch located in the centre of Gaza. It is often crowded with people desperately seeking funds.

"I'm an employee in the Gaza government and for the last 2 years, I go to the Post office to get my salary but I couldn't get a loan. I tried to open an account in other banks, but all of them refused. I've been dealing with this bank for two months now. I got a loan and I'm really satisfied," a customer standing in line explained.

The main clientele of the bank are Gaza Government employees, approximately 31,000. Also, some customers of this bank are refused by other banks because of their relationship with Hamas. Gulf News spoke with the general manager of the bank Hazem Al Husary.

"There are many people who cannot deal with Gaza banks. This new project is founded to help these people," Al Husary explained. Unlike other banks, this one has no global serial number (swift code) which makes it impossible to work with other banks around the world or even in the Palestinian territories.

Addressing the banks relationship to Hamas, Al Husary explained how the PMA refused them a licence. "We contacted the Hamas government here in Gaza and they accepted our applications to start working in Gaza. You must deal with Hamas and get their authorisation of course," he said.

Al Husary agreed that his bank contributed to the inter-Palestinian division."The division already exists, one of them is our bank of course, but we are looking forward to the day when these problems are resolved," he said.