The IFSB Disseminates Q3-2017 Data for Islamic Banking Systems in 20 Countries, Including Data from Qatar, Palestine, and Lebanon for the First Time

Kuala Lumpur– The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) is pleased to announce the dissemination of country-level data on financial soundness and growth of the Islamic banking systems for Q3 of 2017 from 20 IFSB member jurisdictions. This ninth dissemination includes data from three new countries for the first time, namely, Qatar, Palestine, and Lebanon. This dissemination completes the availability of quarterly data from Q4 of 2013 to Q3 of 2017. The countries currently participating in the IFSB’s Prudential and Structural Islamic Financial Indicators (PSIFIs) database project include: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.           

The Secretary-General of the IFSB, Dr. Bello Lawal Danbatta stated, “With the dissemination of Islamic banking data to the three new countries, the PSIFIs database achieves another milestone in covering more than 95% of global Islamic banking data and now provides wider scope to the data users for assessing the trends and stability of Islamic banking activities at both jurisdiction and global level”. Dr. Bello also mentioned, “After the launch of Phase IV of this project in early 2017, the IFSB has undertaken several efforts to expand the database coverage to Islamic insurance (takāful) and Islamic capital market sectors, including conducting an industry wide survey”. “A new Task Force is being formed with the representatives of regulatory and supervisory authorities for the Islamic capital market and takāful sectors in order to implement the next steps which include, finalisation of the list of indicators and compilation methodologies, designing data templates and the start of an actual collection of data and metadata”, he further added.

With the inclusion of new countries’ data, the total assets of the Islamic banking industry grew by 8.6% from USD 1,532 billion in 2016Q4 to USD 1,662 billion in 2017Q3 (calculated from country-wise aggregated data converted into USD terms using end-period exchange rates over nine months). Financing by Islamic banks from the jurisdictions participating in the PSIFIs project which grew by 8.7% reached USD 1,018 billion in 2017Q3 from USD 936 billion in 2016Q4. The number of full-fledged Islamic banks and Islamic windows of conventional banks in 20 countries stood at 178 and 84 in 2017Q3 as compared to 176 and 83 in 2016Q4 respectively.

After the completion of Islamic banking database with the representation of most significant markets in Islamic banking sector, the PSIFIs banking database is now extending its templates for detailed sector-level financial statements for each participating countries. The IFSB Secretariat is also finalising a broad set of indicators for Islamic capital market and takāful sectors by studying their relevance, significance, and availability of data in member jurisdictions, while enhancing the existing Compilation Guide to provide detailed guidance on the compilation methodologies and metadata collection of the finalised set of indicators.

The PSIFIs Database (full set of data with metadata) is available on the PSIFIs portal at the IFSB website http://psifi.ifsb.org. 

PSIFIs Background

The Task Force of PSIFIs project includes representatives from 21 participating regulatory and supervisory authorities that work as coordinators for regular submission of data from their countries and work with the IFSB during the due processes of data collection, compilation, revision, and approval. Three international organisations – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – are also members of the Task Force.

Following the successful launch of PSIFIs database on 27 April 2015, the IFSB currently has a platform for periodical dissemination of the PSIFIs data, which is regularly submitted by participating jurisdictions. Moreover, from 2014 until now, the Secretariat has conducted a total of nine capacity building meetings/workshops with the country coordinators, including one in 2018.

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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 and market players, professional firms and industry associations.

For more information about the IFSB, please visit www.ifsb.org  

© Press Release 2018