DHAKA, June 10, 2019 (BSS) – 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,” a BB senior
official told BSS here today.
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 Taka 2,37,279.20 crore
at the end of January-March 2019 quarter, which went up by Taka 6,371.92
crore or by 2.76 percent compared to the previous quarter and by Taka
28,130.70 crore 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 Taka 2,42,118.80 crore, which increased by Taka 4,751.89 crore or
by two percent compared to the previous quarter and by Taka 26,560.87 crore
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 Taka
8,337.75 crore at the end of January-March 2019 quarter, which was lower by
Taka 4,738.06 crore or by 36.24 percent compared to the previous quarter as
well as lower by Taka 702.22 crore 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.