Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) plans to establish a retail banking presence in Iraq, its chief executive officer, Tirad al-Mahmoud, told MEED at the sidelines of the Global Islamic Economy Summit.

“We will begin putting a team on the ground to study the feasibility of retail banking in Iraq in the second quarter of 2014. Hopefully we’ll know the conclusion by the end of 2014. Depending on the conclusion, we’re looking at a 2015 launch. It’s a promising market, but we need to study it first,” said Al-Mahmoud.

ADIB currently has a corporate banking network in Iraq, with branches in Baghdad and Erbil. It plans to open another branch in Basra next month.

The sharia-compliant lender is also exploring the possibility of starting operations in Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco, Al-Mahmoud said.

“We are already in Egypt and are looking at the Maghreb countries. We’ve been studying ways to enter them, but have not really found the right opportunity,” he said.

The bank, which has 80 branches across the Middle East and opened a UK branch in 2012, strives to attract new customers by focusing on the ethical values of Islamic finance.

“The opportunities for Islamic banks have to do with making the business more universal [by] making it attractive to non-Muslims,” said Al-Mahmoud.

“We believe that human values everywhere are the same […] when it comes to money we want it to be safe, when we borrow from banks we don’t want them to take advantage of us and we don’t want surprises. These are very fundamental, sound ethical standards.”