Bristol & West said it was too early for details, but that the launch would enlist a third-party provider.
Debbie Staveley, PR manager, Bristol & West, said: “We are looking at a launch next financial year, although there are all sorts of product details yet to be agreed.”
She continued: “We are looking at a variety of new markets, because, basically, we want to be an inclusive lender and lend to as wide a variety of people as possible.”
West Bromwich Building Society was the first UK high street bank to white-label Islamic home finance products, from Ahli United Bank (AUB), but the Bahraini bank refused to confirm or deny any part in the B&W launch later this year.
HSBC became the third UK lender and the first high street direct-to-consumer Islamic home loan provider in the UK in July 2003, after the United National Bank and what is now AUB.
The abolition of double Stamp Duty in December 2003 is expected to create more interest in Sharia home loans.
Richard Bowers, head of business development, HSBC Amanah Finance UK, said the developmental process was ‘pretty difficult’ even before the issue of cost-effectiveness and potential customer-base was addressed.
“It took seven years in man hours to get the home finance product to market,” he said.
“One of the issues we had was to get the product approved by the Sharia board, or board of Islamic specialist scholars and then approved by the UK HSBC board who also made adjustments so it had to go back to the Sharia scholars again and on it went,” said Bowers.
The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) has claimed success in lowering the cost of regulation for start up businesses following the initial round of registration for regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA
