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2008 historical year for Islamic Banking
Khalid Butt
Lahore—The year 2008 was the best and a landmark year for the
Islamic Banking in Pakistan during which the Islamic Banking
industry grew far more rapidly as compared to the previous year.
During the year with an addition of 217 Islamic Banking Branches,
the number of branches went from 289 to 506 expanding the network to
various cities. At the end of December 2007, Islamic Banking
deposits and assets were estimated at Rs. 147 billion Rs. 206
billion respectively, whereas there was a drastic increase of 30% to
40% in the reserves during the year 2008. New Islamic Financial
products were introduced during the year. The state bank of Pakistan
also issued guidelines for Agricultural Finance and Islamic Micro
Finance which have been the milestones for introducing the Islamic
Financial products at the Micro level.
These thoughts were expressed by Muhammad Zubair Mughal, CEO, AlHuda
centre of Islamic Banking in a seminar on Islamic Banking.
He said that besides 6 complete Islamic Banks in Pakistan, there are
506 Islamic branches of 12 conventional banks operating throughout
Pakistan which includes 161 branches of Meezan Bank, 25 of Dubai
Islamic Bank, 40 of Emirates Global, 102 of Bank Islami, 5 of Soneri
Bank, 4 of Habib Metropolitan Bank, 16 of Bank of Khyber, 18 of
Askari Bank, 3 of Royal Bank of Scotland, 4 Bank-al-Habib, 5 of UBL,
11 of SCB, 40 of Alfalah, 1 of Habib Bank, 30 of Al-Baraka, 21 of
Dawud Islamic Bank, MCB 8 and 5 branches of NBP. He further said
that currently there is worldwide global financial crisis which has
been a major reason for the bankruptcy of various Banks and
Financial institutes but in spite of the fact the Islamic Banking
system is gaining momentum globally which is evident through the
facts & figures for Islamic banking in Pakistan.
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