Islamic banks hold one-fourth banking sector’s shares

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Bangla Tribune Desk
Published : 04:00, Jun 11, 2019 | Updated : 04:00, Jun 11, 2019

This undated file photo shows a official serves a client at a bank.The share of Islamic banking sector is almost 25 percent of the entire banking sector at the end of January-March quarter in 2019, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) latest data.
“Islamic banking industry holds almost one-fourth share of the entire banking industry in terms of deposits and investments at the end of the quarter under review. The banking is playing a significant role in mobilizing deposits and financing different sectors of the economy,” state-run news agency BSS quoted a senior official of Bangladesh Bank as saying.
He said among different segments of Bangladesh’s Islamic finance industry, Islamic banking industry dominates and the banking segment continued to show rapid expansion in terms of growth of assets, deposits, investments, and number of account holders.
According to the central bank latest data, the total investments (loans in conventional sense) in Islamic banking sector stood at Tk 2.37 trillion at the end of January-March 2019 quarter, which went up by Tk 63.72 billion or by 2.76 percent compared to the previous quarter and by Tk 281.31 billion or by 13.45 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of the preceding year.
During the January-March period, the total deposits in the banking industry reached at Tk 2.42 trillion, which increased by Tk 47.52 billion or by two percent compared to the previous quarter and by Tk 265.61 billion or by 12.32 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year.
During the quarter, Investment-Deposit Ratio (Credit-Deposit Ratio in conventional sense) stood at 0.98 which was 0.97 at the end of December 2018.
The total remittances mobilized by the Islamic banking sector stood at Tk 83.38 billion at the end of January-March 2019 quarter, which was lower by Tk 47.38 billion or by 36.24 percent compared to the previous quarter as well as lower by Tk 7.02 million or by 7.77 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of the preceding year.
The number of branches of Islamic banking sector including Islamic branches or windows of conventional commercial banks stood at 1,252 at the end of the January-March quarter while there were 1,241 branches during the previous quarter and 1,181 during the corresponding quarter of 2018.
After analyzing the sector-wise investments, it is observed that investment in the trade and business sector was 36.63 percent, which was the highest among all sectors at the end o f January-March quarter, 2019.
The next position was occupied by industrial sector, which stood at 27.66 percent followed by Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) (20.53 percent), others (5.61 percent), real estate (5.97 percent), agriculture (1.53 percent), transportation (1.36 percent), electricity, gas and water supply (0.97 percent) and poverty alleviation (0.08 percent).
In the quarterly report, BB said Islamic banks should pay more attention in Research and Development (R&D) to devise the proper guidelines and policies to promote investments under the mudaraba and musharaka modes.

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