The investments with the Islamic banking accounts have increased by 19.03 percent at end of the October-December quarter of 2017 compared to the corresponding period of the preceding year, 2016.
“The Islamic banking segment continued to show rapid expansion in terms of growth of assets, deposits, investments and number of account holders,” a Bangladesh Bank (BB) senior official told BSS here today.
According to the BB latest data, total investments (loans in conventional sense) in Islamic banking sector stood at Taka 2,01,101.96 crore at the end of October-December 2017 quarter, which went up by Taka 7,857.68 crore or by 4.07 percent compared to the previous quarter and by Taka 32,144.48 crore or by 19.03 percent compared to the same quarter of the preceding year.
During the October-December period, the total deposits in the banking industry reached Taka 2,14,259.42 crore, which increased by Taka 10,252.36 crore or by 5.03 percent compared to the previous quarter and by Taka 26,564.52 crore or by 14.15 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year.
The Investment-Deposit Ratio (credit-deposit ratio in conventional sense) reached 0.94 in October-December quarter which was 0.95 in the previous quarter of 2017 and 0.90 at the end of December 2016.
The total remittances mobilized by the Islamic banking sector stood at Taka 11,070.85 crore at the end of October-December quarter, which was higher by Taka 1,191.14 crore or by 12.06 percent compared to the previous quarter and higher by taka 1,901.21 crore or by 20.73 percent compared to the same quarter of the preceding year.
The number of branches of Islamic banking sector including Islamic branches or windows of conventional commercial banks stood at 1,168 at the end of the October-December quarter, which was 1,126 during the previous quarter and 1,050 during the same quarter of 2016.
After analyzing the sector-wise investments, it is observed that investments in the trade and business sector was 28.93 percent, which was highest among all sectors at the end o f October to December quarter 2017.
The next position was occupied by Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), which stood at 27.52 percent followed by industrial sector (25.29 percent), others (7.80 percent), real estate (6.50 percent), agriculture (1.71 percent), transportation (1.33 percent), electricity, gas and water supply (0.82 percent) and poverty alleviation (0.09 percent).
Among the Islamic banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) accounted for the biggest share of deposits and investments — 35.08 percent and 34.86 percent respectively.
In the quarterly report, BB said Islamic banks should pay more attention in Research and Development (R&D) to devise the proper guidelines and policies to promote investments under the mudaraba and musharaka modes.
Talking to BSS here today, Social Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (SIBL) 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 follower of Islam and the Islamic banking is following the rules of Islamic Shariah.
“We are providing training to our officials in the bank’s training institute to gather more knowledge on Islamic banking for expediting Islamic financial industry as it intends to ensure human welfare,” he added.
