The Islamic Banking Industry market share rose to 16 percent at the end of quarter ending in September 2020, from 15.3pc in last quarter and 13.8pc in the same quarter last year.

As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Islamic Banking Bulletin, at the end of the quarter under review (July-September 2020), the asset base of Islamic banking industry (IBI) grew by 4.8 percent (Rs 175.8 billion) and stood at Rs 3,809 billion while deposits stood at Rs 3,034 billion, depicting a quarterly growth of 3 percent (Rs 87.5 billion).

Assets and deposits of IBI depicted YoY growth of 27.2 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Likewise, ‘financing & investments (net)’ recorded a quarterly growth of 6.3 percent (Rs 163 billion) and reached Rs 2,760 billion, whereas, the YoY growth was 28.9 percent. In terms of market share, IBI stands at 16.0 percent and 17.3 percent, respectively in assets and deposits of overall banking industry by end September 2020 while for ‘financing & investments (net)’of IBI the share is 14.2 percent for the said period.

Moreover, at the end of September 2020, profit before tax of IBI stood at Rs 69.9 billion.

At the end of September 2020, infrastructure of Islamic banking industry remained same with 22 Islamic banking institutions (IBIs); 5 full-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) and 17 conventional banks having standalone Islamic banking branches (IBBs).

However, the branch network of IBI saw a quarterly increase from 3,274 branches to 3,303 branches. With branches mainly concentrated in Punjab, followed by Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The number of Islamic banking windows (dedicated counters at conventional branches) operated by conventional banks having IBBs stood at 1,386.