Islamic banks’ market share up

KARACHI: The market share of Islamic banking assets in the overall banking industry increased to 16 percent in the third quarter of 2020 from 13.8 percent a year ago, the State Bank of Pakistan’s Islamic Banking Bulletin for July-September 2020 said on Friday.

The market share of Islamic banks’ assets stood at 15.3 percent in the previous quarter.

The assets of Islamic banking industry increased to Rs3.809 trillion by the end of September from Rs3.633 trillion by the end June 2020, primarily due to investments.

It was a considerable increase of Rs176 billion (4.8 percent quarter-on-quarter growth) compared with a minor increase of Rs2.9 billion (0.1 percent) during the corresponding period of 2019.

The market share of Islamic banking sector deposits rose to 17.3 percent in July-September 2020 from 16.1 percent a year earlier, it said.

Moreover, at the end of the September 2020, profit before tax of IBI stood at Rs69.9 billion, compared with Rs49 billion in the previous quarter.

At the end of September 2020, investments (net) made by IBI surged considerably to the tune of 19 percent (Rs170.9 billion) and stood at Rs1070 billion compared to a deceleration of 1.9 percent in corresponding period of 2019.

“This increase was mainly due to investments made by IBIs in GoP [Government of Pakistan] Sukuk. The government has issued sovereign Sukuk of Rs162 billion during the period under review, it added.