PHOTO
Muscat - With Islamic banks and windows continuing to register robust growth in Oman, the sector's total assets touched RO2.5bn at the end of March this year. Its share of Oman's total banking system assets rose to eight per cent.
Islamic banking assets jumped by over 62 per cent from RO1.52bn a year earlier, according to latest statistics released by the Central Bank of Oman.
The Sharia'a-compliant entities' financing stood at RO1.93bn at the end of March 2016, against RO1.22bn a year earlier, a growth of more than 58 per cent.
Total deposits held by Islamic banks and windows more than doubled to RO1.68bn from RO744mn.
"The combined balance sheet of conventional and Islamic banks taken together provides a complete overview of the financial intermediation taking place in the banking system in Oman," the CBO said in its monthly statistical bulletin.
The Islamic banking sector's investments in government bonds touched RO89.2mn as of March 2016 from nil a year ago, while investments in other
domestic and foreign securities stood at RO38.1mn and RO19.6mn, respectively.
According to the CBO, total assets of conventional commercial banks increased 9.1 per cent to RO28.6bn at the end of March 2016. Credit disbursement by commercial banks rose 9.5 per cent to RO19.1bn at the end of March.
Oman's banking system is well capitalised and has been resilient to the drop in oil prices supported by a relatively comfortable liquidity situation and low non-performing loans, the central bank said.
With a rise in government borrowings due to the fall in oil prices, conventional banks' investment in government development bonds increased by 29.2 per cent over the year to RO864.7mn. Banks also invested RO401.3mn in government treasury bills at the end of March this year. This compared with RO180mn a year earlier.
On the other hand, government deposits with conventional banks declined six per cent to RO4.8bn from RO5.11bn.
© Muscat Daily 2016
