Annual Report 2006 - Faisal Finance Switzerland SA

Chairman’s Statement (cont’d)
growth and encourages each entity to provide an increasingly diversified
platform to expand its overall client base.
Today, through Faisal Private Bank, we are arguably the first to support a
specialist and yet comprehensive model that merges a rigorous commitment
to our ethical heritage with a world renowned Swiss tradition for excellence
in private wealth management.
On the wide scene of Sharia compliant institutions, the role and mission
of Faisal Private Bank is unique and stands out. In the universe of Islamic
banks either situated in the Muslim world or recently in countries with
prominent local Muslim communities and Islamic windows or affiliates of
conventional institutions, none were to date specifically tailored to service
the wealth management needs of affluent or high net worth individuals. In
their vast majority other banks are centred on retail and investment banking
activities, on institutional distribution services and on systematic product
structuring, all of which lack the specific advisory skill sets demanded by
private banking. In this respect Faisal Private Bank now addresses a specific
need that has been recognised over the past few years by the market and
which to date was only available through conventional private banking.
In this respect, Faisal Private Bank is structured to continue expanding
its platform of personalised services and products for a growing private
clientele. By joining the banking sector of Switzerland, a country which
performs a reputed and sizeable intermediation function within the global
financial system, the Bank is strategically positioned to prove increasingly
competitive and appealing in the years come.
In the future the Bank – which enjoys an sought after track-record as a day
one Islamic financial institution- is increasingly poised to be the privileged
partner boutique for global banks in Switzerland that are seeking to expand
their legitimacy within the Islamic private banking market by integrating their
Annual Report 2006
6
Islamic Banking in
Switzerland