RIZWAN BHATTI
KARACHI (September 09 2009): Despite slow economic activities and global financial crisis, growth rate of Islamic banking industry remained higher than the conventional banking industry, culminating in continuously rising share of Islamic finance in the local and global financial markets.

The State Bank of Pakistan on Tuesday revealed that the Islamic banking industry has posted a growth of 12.4 percent during the quarter ended June 2009 and total assets of Islamic banking in Pakistan reached Rs 313 billion in June 2009 compared with Rs 278 billion in March 2009.

The data for quarter ended June 2009, shows that asset financing activities of Islamic banks have revived besides substantially higher assets and deposits growth. The profitability indicators have also shown marked improvement as compared to the preceding quarter. The financing and investment portfolio of Islamic banks reached Rs 195.0 billion in June 2009 compared with Rs 185 billion in March 2009, depicting an increase of 5.1 percent during the last quarter.

In terms of market share, total assets, financing & investment and deposits reached 5.1 percent and 4.2 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, at end June 2009. The branch network of 6 full-fledged Islamic banks and 12 conventional banks (with dedicated Islamic banking branches-IBBs) increased to 528 branches in June 2009.

The State Bank of Pakistan issuing "Islamic Banking Bulletin" for the second quarter ended on June 30, 3009 said that current growth rate of Islamic banking industry has envisioned to achieve a share of 12 percent by 2012 as per Islamic banking strategy plan.

The growing depositors' confidence is well reflected in last quarter, which shows an increase of 15.5 percent in the deposits. The deposit base of Islamic banks stood at Rs 238 billion at end-June 2009 compared to Rs 206 billion in the previous quarter-end.

Total liabilities of Islamic banks have increased by 13.3 percent to Rs 274 billion from Rs 242 billion during the quarter. While the net assets and equity increased by around 7 percent each. There is an increase of 6 percent in the reserves to one billion rupees and then appropriated profits increased by 79 percent to Rs 900 million in last quarter.

The highlight of quarter June 2009 was that most of the indicators of the Islamic banking in Pakistan showed reversion towards the usual high growth trend. It may be recalled that the Islamic banks also witnessed some slowdown as a result of the financial stress of recent times.

The financing portfolio has increased by 3 percent quarter on quarter basis (QoQ). This is encouraging, as during the last quarter (January-March 2009) the financing had actually declined by Rs 10 billion. The resurgence in financing is accompanied by a QoQ 9.3 percent increase in investment. The increased financing may be reflecting the improving economic outlook of the country.

While, the investment has largely increased due to 3rd issuance of GoP Ijara Sukuk. Nonetheless, there is a welcome increase of Rs 2.4 billion in Musharika financing, though Modaraba financing declined by almost 50 percent. Nonetheless, the net mark-up income increased from Rs 7.8 billion to Rs 15.4 billion-a healthy 94.0 percent growth. Non-mark up income increased by a hefty 213.2 percent from Rs 0.5 billion in March 2009 to Rs 1.6 billion in June 2009.

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