Islamic banks’ market sharerises to 14.9 percent in 2019

KARACHI: KARACHI: Market share of Islamic banking assets in the overall banking industry rose to 14.9 percent in the year ended December 2019 from 13.5 percent in 2018, the State Bank of Pakistan said on Friday.

“Market share of Islamic banking assets and deposits in the overall banking industry was recorded at 14.9 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively by end December, 2019,” the bank‘s Islamic Banking Bulletin said.

Assets of Islamic banking industry increased by 9.6 percent during the quarter October to December, 2019 and stood at Rs3,284 billion by December 31, 2019. Assets of Islamic banking increased 23.5 percent in 2019 as compared with Rs2,658 billion a year ago.

Similarly, deposits of Islamic banking industry experienced a quarterly growth of 10.2 percent or Rs245 billion and were recorded at Rs2,652 billion by end December, 2019. The deposits increased by 20.4 percent in 2019.

The profit before tax increased to Rs66 billion for the year under review as compared with Rs34 billion in the preceding year. The share of financing and investments (net) in total assets of Islamic banking industry stood at 49.4 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively by end December, 2019.

Bifurcation of assets among IBs and IBBs reveals that assets of full-fledged Islamic banks increased by 9.1 percent (Rs 161 billion) and were recorded at Rs. 1,927 billion while assets of IBBs increased by 10.4 percent (Rs 128 billion) and were recorded at Rs. 1,357 billion by end December, 2019.

In terms of share, IBs accounted for 58.7 percent and IBBs 41.3 percent share in overall assets of Islamic banking industry during the period under review. Investments of Islamic banking industry witnessed an increase of Rs. 2 billion and were recorded at around Rs 597 billion by end December, 2019 compared to Rs595 billion in the previous quarter.

During the period under review, investments of IBs declined by Rs 1.3 billion while that of IBBs increased by Rs3.4 billion.

Deposits of Islamic banking industry were recorded at Rs. 2,652 billion by end December, 2019. Market share of Islamic banking industry’s deposits in overall banking industry’s deposits increased to 16.6 percent by end December, 2019 compared to 16.1 percent in the previous quarter.

The network of Islamic banking industry consisted of 22 Islamic banking institutions; 5 full-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) and 17 conventional banks having standalone Islamic banking branches (IBBs) with 3,226 branches spread across 120 districts by end December, 2019. The number of Islamic banking windows operated by conventional banks having IBBs stood at 1,373.