The Islamic Banking Industry continued to show impressive gains as its overall assets and deposits achieved year on year growth of 30.6 percent and 28.4 percent, respectively, shared State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its quarterly report, 'Islamic Banking Bulletin for the quarter ending March 31, 2021'.
Assets of the Islamic Banking Industry increased by Rs120 billion during the quarter of January to March 2021 and amounted to Rs 4,389 billion by end March 31, 2021. Deposits also experienced a quarterly growth of Rs68 billion during the period under review to reach Rs3,457 billion.
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This growth in assets and deposits of the Islamic Banking Industry comes as an encouraging sign, as economic activity resumes amid relaxation of SOPs implemented to curb Covid-19.
The industry has been growing consistently over the years and this is reflected in the sizeable market share it has acquired in the overall banking industry. Market share of Islamic Banking assets and deposits in the overall banking industry was recorded at 17.0 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, said the report.
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The SBP bulletin said that assets quality indicators including non-performing finances (NPFs) to financing (gross) and net NPFs to net financing were recorded at 3.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, by end-March, 2021. It is worth mentioning here that both these ratios were better than those of the overall banking industry’s averages.
The ratios of ‘capital to total assets and ‘capital minus net NPAs to total assets’ were registered at 6.2 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively, by end-March, 2021.
Meanwhile, profit before tax was recorded at Rs 21.3 billion by end-March, 2021 compared to Rs20.6 billion in the same quarter last year. Operating expense to gross income was registered at 51.5 percent by end-March, 2021 compared to 47.5 percent in the previous quarter.
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During the period under review, 48 branches were added to the branch network, taking the overall number to 3,504 branches (spread across 124 districts of the country) by end-March, 2021.