Vision Bank has launched a Shariah-compliant financing offering aimed at helping eligible SMEs fund working-capital needs linked to cross-border trade. (Image source: Vision Bank)Vision Bank has launched a Shari’ah-compliant financing proposition for small and medium-sized enterprises involved in cross-border trade, adding short-term working-capital finance to its existing business banking services.
The Abu Dhabi-based lender said the product would be delivered through partnerships with fintech companies and trade-finance platforms, giving it a way to source financing opportunities across several markets.
Rather than relying only on a company’s balance sheet, Vision Bank said it intends to evaluate the commercial transaction behind each financing request, along with the relevant counterparties and credit risks. The approach is designed for SMEs seeking funding tied to identifiable trade flows, such as the movement of goods between an exporter and a buyer.
Exporters and other trade-oriented businesses in the Gulf Cooperation Council, India and Southeast Asia are among the intended customers. Vision Bank said the proposition may be particularly relevant in markets where smaller companies have difficulty obtaining competitively priced U.S. dollar financing through domestic banking channels. Any financing remains limited to eligible businesses and will be structured in accordance with applicable Shari’ah principles.
Digital platforms will play a central role in how the bank identifies and reaches prospective borrowers. Selected fintech and trade-finance partners are expected to connect Vision Bank with SMEs whose working-capital requirements arise from genuine commercial transactions. The model could extend the bank’s reach without requiring it to build a large conventional branch or distribution network in every target market.
Jeremy Parrish, chairman of Vision Bank, said: “SMEs are increasingly operating across borders, platforms and supply chains, but access to short-term trade finance has not always kept pace with how these businesses work. With this launch, Vision Bank is introducing a platform-led SME financing proposition designed to support real trade flows across markets in a Shari’ah-compliant and commercially practical way.”
The bank said it plans to add further fintech and trade-finance platform relationships as the proposition develops. This leaves the initiative’s eventual scale dependent partly on the number and reach of those partners, as well as Vision Bank’s credit standards and risk appetite.
Mohammed Alhassan and Pankaj Gupta, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of GII Group, stated: “Vision Bank reflects how GII builds. We identify a structural gap, then address it through a regulated platform and technology-enabled distribution rather than balance-sheet scale. SMEs trading across borders remain underserved in US dollar working capital, and a partnership-led, Shari’ah-compliant model allows Vision Bank to reach them selectively and with discipline. Vision Bank sits alongside our asset management and private markets franchises within a single Shari’ah-compliant platform serving businesses and investors across the GCC and beyond.”
Vision Bank operates from Abu Dhabi Global Market and is regulated by ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority. The FSRA’s official public register lists the bank as an active financial firm with permission to accept deposits, provide credit, advise on investments or credit, and conduct Islamic financial business. Its authorization to provide credit has been effective since December 2018, while its permission to engage in Islamic financial business took effect in February 2024.
GII Group owns the bank, having acquired 100% of Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank from Mubadala in 2022. The institution was subsequently developed under the Vision Bank name as a corporate-focused Islamic lender offering business accounts, client-money accounts and Murabaha deposits. The latest launch broadens its services by introducing financing tied specifically to working-capital needs and international trade.
The initiative enters a market where unmet demand remains substantial. The Asian Development Bank’s latest Global Trade Finance Gap Survey estimated a worldwide shortfall of $2.5 trillion and found that 80% of surveyed banks expected trade-finance demand to rise as companies diversified markets and reorganized supply chains. More than 80% of participating banks reported dedicated SME strategies, yet rejection rates for SME trade-finance applications remained about 41%. Vision Bank’s platform-led model is a targeted response to that broader problem.
