SBP to finalise plan for Islamic banking

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is evolving a five-year (2013-17) strategic plan for the Islamic banking industry that will move the industry to the next level of growth. SBP Deputy Governor Kazi Muktadir speaking at the Islamic Finance News (IFN) Roadshow here on Wednesday said the central bank was also developing a comprehensive framework to further strengthen the Shariah governance in Islamic Banking Institutions (IBIs). He added that the framework will explicitly define the roles and responsibilities of different organs of IBIs including the board of directors, Shariah advisors, committees and executive management for ensuring Shariah compliance. He said a comprehensive profit distribution and pool management framework, in consultation with the industry, had already been developed and was likely to be issued this month. Growing from scratch in 2002, Muktadir said that the Islamic banking now constituted over 8 per cent of the banking system with a network of 964 branches and over 500 windows across the country. “It is likely to increase its share to 15 per cent in next five years. Encouragingly, the sustained growth of Islamic banking has also started catalysing growth and development of Islamic capital markets, Mutual funds and Takaful companies etc. Presently, we have five Takaful operators, about 30 Islamic mutual funds,” said Muktadir. Muktadir said SBP would soon be launching a mass media campaign to create awareness about Islamic banking. “The campaign we believe will be instrumental in enhancing public awareness and would give further boost to the growth momentum of Islamic banking industry,” said Muktadir. Despite the fact that large deposits are being made, bank lending to the private sector in Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has dropped from 25 to 13 per cent in the last decade. This in turn has slowed growth and led to economic stagnation in the province. Launching a report on the banking perspective of the economic stagnation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the Chamber House here on Monday, president Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) Afan Aziz said that a huge disparity in the growth of commercial banks’ advances had been recorded over the last decade. Bank lending to deposits ratio dropped to 13 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last 10 years as compared to the ratio for Punjab and Sindh. This had caused the economic downturn in the province. KPCCI vice president Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, members of the executive committee, businessmen and industrialists were also present at the launch. From gulftoday