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Decision to promote microfinance by Islamic banking |
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Updated at:
1235
PST, Tuesday, November 03, 2009 |
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ISLAMABAD: Muhammad Kamran Shehzad, Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said here on Monday that draft State Bank Law also includes the steps for the promotion of Islamic Banking in the country.
He also said that there would be no threat to the banks in case federal ministries development funds held by commercial banks are transferred to the government treasury.
“World Bank, in its Pakistan Economic Update report had criticized the government’s policy of not transferring these funds (equivalent to $10 billion) from the commercial banks to the government treasury”.
Talking to reporters at Convention Centre after inaugurating a seminar on Islamic Banking organized by Alhuda Centre For Islamic Banking and Economics, Deputy Governor said that these funds would definitely be transferred from commercial banks to government treasury over a two or two and half year time period and this would have no threat to these banks, he explained.
These funds were placed with banks falling in the definition of A-Rated Banks and different banks i.e. small as well as big banks hold all the said funds, he added.
However, he does not believe that the government has fixed any deadline for transfer of these funds from commercial banks to government treasury.
While addressing the seminar, Deputy Governor said that draft State Bank Law also includes the steps for the promotion of Islamic Banking mainly relating to deposits, legal advisory framework and Sharia advisory.
He also said that tax laws and SECP instruments relating to the Islamic Banking are being fine tuned so that this mode of banking is promoted and potential existing in the country is fully taped.
World financial crisis that resulted into taking big banks of the world in deep waters, have impacted Pakistani banking system to the extent of 2 percent to 3 percent only and Islamic Banking has remained totally safe from the impact of this crisis.
He said that there is a general acceptance of Islamic banking in the country and this would provide sound basis to this mode of banking. At present total deposit held by the banks stand at Rs 3 trillion and out of which some 5.2 percent are held by Islamic Banks and value of total assets of Islamic banks stands at 5.1 percent in the country.
SBP has already fixed a target of increasing Islamic banking Share in local banking sector to 12 percent by 2010 from existing 5.2 percent. If the SBP is able to increase Islamic Banking share to over 8 percent or 9 percent even than it would be a great success. To build the capacity of the Islamic banking industry of the country the State Bank of Pakistan is planning to establish Islamic Banking Industry Training Institute.
Deputy Governor informed the participants that Islamic Banking is gaining due importance around the world as its deposits are estimated at $700 billion now and it is projected that these deposits would increase to $1.6 trillion by 2012.
SBP is promoting Islamic Banking sector to increase their presence in Small and Medium sector, Micro finance Sector and Agriculture Finance Sector.
The main target is to promote Islamic Banking to take the lead in micro-finance sector in next five years to enable the poor of the poorest of the country to have access to finances.
Amir Khalil, an expert of Islamic Banking demanded the SBP to facilitate conversion of entire banking sector into Sharia Complaint sector as the Islamic principles prohibit the present practices.
S.M.H. Farazi, an expert of Islamic Banking from Sri Lanka speaking on the occasion stressed the need for development of international regulations so that non-Muslim countries easily adopt this safe and sound mode of banking.
At a time when interest based banking system have met a failure in major developed countries, the promotion of Islamic banking is the need of the hour, which have proven to be safe.
Prominent Scholar on Islamic Banking, Tahir Mansuri in his presentation on Islamic Banking explained the objections that are normally raised against Islamic Banking and with the help of his research on Islamic Teachings, he proved the allegations wrong.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
