Islamic banking: 12 percent share of overall financial sector achievable in 5 years

Chairman of Islamic Capital Partners Khalid Rafi has said that the current tremendous growth of Islamic banking sector indicates it will achieve the 12 percent share of overall financial sector in Pakistan during next five years.
He said this while inaugurating the third WorldAsia Islamic Capital conference at a local hotel on Wednesday. The conference is being attended delegates from more than 100 financial institutions across the globe. Islamic capital was committed to promote leading industry forums in and outside Pakistan, he said.
Khalid Rafi said: "Our total banking system deposit is just under 60 billion dollars, and Islamic banks managed approximately two billions of this amount."
This represented three percent market share, which was surely a commendable achievement over a short history of five years, he said, adding the targets were even more impressive.
"Today the Islamic banking industry is all geared up to capture 12 percent market share by 2012, a target that we call '12 by 12'. "Roughly, this translates to an additional 15 billion dollars or Rs 900 billion in Islamic deposits over the next five years.
"To achieve the "12 by 12" objectives, Islamic banks have also launched an aggressive outreach campaign and have added 140 branches in just 18 months," he added. Khalid Rafi further said the Islamic banking was rapidly growing in the Pakistan and presently conventional banks were also launching Islamic banking windows, besides launching of new Islamic banks.
While the total branch network stood at close to 218, he said, and hoped it was set to quadruple over the next four years He said that overall the Islamic banking industry in Pakistan had come a long way, despite various challenges. "Today, we have six full Islamic banks operational in the country that have been established with the support from leading financial institutions from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). This is also a validation of the tremendous investment opportunities and the growing interest of Shariah compliant foreign investors in Pakistan," he said.
He said: "We gratefully acknowledge the support we have received from our partners, especially Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC); Al Jomaih Group of Saudi Arabia, Emirates Global Islamic Bank, UBL Funds, Meezan Bank, Arif Habib Investments, Dawood Islamic Bank and Pak Qatar Takaful, for the whole hearted support in making this conference a success.
Speaking next, Meezan Bank President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Irfan siddiqui said that Islamic banks had to put extra efforts to attract their customers by declaring their products more innovative. He said that consumers did not merely come for Islamic products, they expected quality and satisfactory services as well.
He said that 12 percent market share target was achievable given the fact that Islamic banks had shown tremendous growth in the last five years. He said that more Islamic banks were planning to launch their operations in Pakistan and there was enough of liquidity in market. State Bank of Pakistan Director Azhar Qureshi said that SBP was focusing on providing the policy framework and supportive regulations for Islamic banking industry.
Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Islamic Bank Tariq Hussain, General Manager of Qatar Islamic Bank Chaudhry Mohammad Wasi, Chairman of Ankaa Group D. M. Qureshi, CEO of Bank Islami Pakistan Hasan Bilgrami, Chairman of Dawood Group Hussain Dawood, Managing Director of Gulf Ventures Corporations Nadeem Mujtaba, General Manager, Corporate, Meezan Bank Najmul Hasan, CEO of Arif Habib Investment Management Nasim Beg, CEO of KASB Funds Limited Naz Khan and CEO of UBL Funds Managers Mir Muhammad Ali also spoke on the occasion.