Three months after being cornered into voluntarily returning its Restricted ADI licence to APRA, Islamic Money Australia is revving for another try.
Speaking to Banking Day over the weekend from Dubai, where he is joined by half the IMA board, CEO Dean Gillespie said the board was leaning towards reapplying for a RADI.
“Or, even straight to an ADI” he said, a surprising but apparently viable pathway.
“We’ve built 70 per cent of everything” Gillespie said, a message echoed at the upbeat Islamic Money website.
Awarded its RADI in July 2022, the then Islamic Bank Australia needed to raise $40 million in capital to progress to a full ADI by July this year.
IBA only managed to bank $18.8 million in capital, Gillespie said.
The bulk of this was from UAE conglomerate Abrecco and much of the rest from Melbourne-based fund manager Hejaz, with whom IBA joined forces in late 2023.
Gillespie declined to say how much capital is left, but not much at all is the word on the street.
Islamic Bank returned its RADI in the first week of March, having never accepted any deposits nor made any loans. The bank had around 15,000 on the watchlist at the time.
In the UAE this week, Gillespie and many members of his board will be holding a series of investor meetings.