Jazira Bank has been accredited as the best Takaful provider at the last annual Euromoney Award Conference for Islamic Fund held in London last week. Ziyad Abalkhail, deputy CEO of Al-Jazira Bank, expressing his happiness over the award, said “the tide is changing in the global Takaful market. In 2007 the UK-based world leader in insurance, Prudential, took a definitive step into the GCC Takaful market with Bank Al-Jazira, Saudi Arabia's smallest bank. In June 2007, Bank Al-Jazira signed a memorandum of understanding with Prudential, which outlined the sale of Aljazira's Takaful arm, Takaful Ta'awuni division (TTD), into a new joint venture.” TTD was already well-established. However, the new regulations of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency insurance stipulate that the bank is required to separate insurance from banking via a new holding company. The law created a good opportunity for Prudential to leverage its international knowledge through Bank Al-Jazira's platform. Dawood Yousuf Tailor, director of TTD, said Al-~Jazira has also shown its innovative drive with the development of two unique products. “To meet special market needs, TTD developed a stand-alone Shariah-compliant alternative to the conventional personal accident plan - something that is commonplace in mature insurance markets but is yet to become established in the MENA region,” he added. “One particular plan addresses the relatively high incidence of diabetes in Saudi Arabia, which makes many potential customers ineligible for standard Takaful coverage,” he noted. In addition, Al-Jazira has developed a new Takaful mortgage protection plan that offers Takaful coverage against the risk of death and/or disability to borrowers of Islamic residential mortgages. Considering that Saudi's mortgage market is still worth less than 2 percent of GDP, Al-Jazira is proving its vision to stay well ahead in the Takaful market. __
