Islamic banks hold 24% share of banking sector

The share of the total Investment of Islamic banks accounted for 24.02% among all banks at the end of July-September quarter this year, which was 23.93% in the previous quarter, according to latest data by Bangladesh Bank (BB).

During the July-September quarter, total investments (loans) in the Islamic banking sector stood at Tk2,20,343.15 crore, which went up by Tk3,515.72 crore (1.62%) compared to the previous quarter, reports BSS.

The investments increased by Tk27,098.88 crore (14.02%) compared to the corresponding quarter of the preceding year.

Furthermore, the total deposits in Islamic banks reached Tk2,27,814.44 crore, which increased by Tk3,056.64 crore (1.36%) compared to the previous quarter, and by Tk23,807.38 crore (11.67%), compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

“The Islamic banking sector is dominating among different segments of Bangladesh’s Islamic finance industry. This segment continued to show rapid expansion in terms of growth of assets, deposits, investments, and number of account holders,” said a senior official of BB.

He further added that the share of Islamic banking sector can be reckoned close to 25% of the entire banking sector, and this plays a significant role in mobilizing deposits and financing different sectors of the economy.

The Investment-Deposit Ratio reached 0.97 in the July-September quarter, from 0.96 in the previous quarter of this year, and 0.95 at the end of September 2017.

Total remittance mobilized by the Islamic banking sector stood at Tk12,281.95 crore at the end of July-September, which Tk820.05 crore (7.15%) higherthan the previous quarter, andTk2,402.23 crore (24.31%)higher than the corresponding quarter of the preceding year.

At the end of the July-September quarter, the number of branches of Islamic banks, including Islamic branches of conventional commercial banks, stood at 1,200. There were 1,178 branches during the previous quarter, and 1,126 during the corresponding quarter of 2017.

Sector-wise analysis of investments revealed that Islamic banks’ investment in the trade and business sector was 34.55%, which was the highest among all sectors at the end of the July-September quarter of this year.

In the quarterly report, BB recommended Islamic banks to pay more attention to research and development to devise proper guidelines and policies, in order to promote investments under the mudaraba and musharaka modes.

Social Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd Chairman Professor M Anwarul Azim Arif said there are huge potentialities of Islamic banking in Bangladesh as most of the people in the country are followers of Islam, and Islamic banking followsshariah rules.

“We are providing training to our officials in the bank’s training institute to help them gather more knowledge on Islamic banking to expedite the Islamic financial industry to ensure human welfare,” he added.