24 November 2015, Kuala Lumpur

The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) is pleased to announce the second dissemination of its Prudential and Structural Islamic Financial Indicators (PSIFIs) from 16 member countries. The PSIFI data, which aims to provide data on the financial soundness and growth of the Islamic banking systems in participating IFSB member jurisdictions, covers the quarterly data from December 2013 to December 2014.

Secretary-General of the IFSB, Mr Jaseem Ahmed stated that "The support of multilateral organisations - such as the IMF, ADB and IDB - have greatly assisted the progress on this project. It is our aim to continue to expand the scope of the PSIFI to include the participation of new jurisdictions, as well as expansion of data to the Islamic capital market and Takaful sectors of the industry".

The first set of data was released on 27 April 2015 covering the period as of December 2013. The second release adds the indicators for the four quarters of 2014, with necessary adjustments and revisions to the earlier data set. It thus provides more complete data than the earlier release as many member jurisdictions have improved their data collection and consolidation framework for Islamic banking industry in line with the requirements of PSIFIs project.

The Task Force on PSIFIs - which includes representatives from 16 member jurisdictions as well as international organisations such as the IMF - updated some indicators after the first release to enhance their clarity and consistency across jurisdictions. In the new release, a number of jurisdictions have also started reporting of the data on macroprudential indicators such as assets held by domestic systemically important banks, leverage ratio, as well as liquidity coverage ratio (LCR).

The countries participating in this project are: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkey. The IFSB is now collecting data for the first two quarters of 2015 which will be targeted for dissemination in Q1 of 2016.

"In the context of the heightened awareness of vulnerability of all financial systems to a range of risks, the PSIFI provide a new tool for monitoring the soundness and stability of Islamic finance", said the Secretary-General of the IFSB, Mr. Jaseem Ahmed. In particular, he noted that, "The focus on core issues of capital adequacy, asset quality, liquidity and leverage will assist in evaluating consistency in the adoption of global and IFSB recent standards on risk based capital, liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and the net stable funding ratio (NSFR)".

The PSIFI Database (full set of data with metadata) is available on the PSIFIs portal at the IFSB website psifi.ifsb.org. The background information on PSIFI is attached. The same information is also available on the PSIFI portal.

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About the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB)
The IFSB is an international standard-setting organisation that promotes and enhances the soundness and stability of the Islamic financial services industry by issuing global prudential standards and guiding principles for the industry, broadly defined to include banking, capital markets, and insurance sectors. The IFSB also conducts research and coordinates initiatives on industry-related issues, as well as organises roundtables, seminars and conferences for regulators and industry stakeholders. Towards this end, the IFSB works closely with relevant international, regional and national organisations, research/educational institutions, and market players. The members of the IFSB comprise regulatory and supervisory authorities, international inter-governmental organisations, market players, professional firms and industry associations. For more information about the IFSB, please visit www.ifsb.org.

© Press Release 2015