Islamic Banks, Financial Institutions Growing

Iranian banks and credit institutions hold the largest amount of assets ($518 billion) compared to other Islamic banks across the world, the chairman of Iran Banking Institute said at the weekend.
“Assets owned by Iranian banks account for 37% of the Islamic world’s total assets,” said Mehdi Razavi in his address to the 26th annual Conference on Islamic Banking held in Tehran last week, the Central Bank of Iran’s public relations office reported.
Several international studies indicate that between 1995 and 2014, Islamic banks and financial institutions grew at an annual rate of 20%, reaching $2 trillion in 2014 from barely $300 billion a decade ago.
Estimates show total asset value of Islamic banks will climb to $3.4 trillion in 2018, Razavi noted. “According to the latest data more than 600 Islamic banks and financial institutions now operate across the globe.”
In its 2014 ranking of financial institutions, The Banker – an English-language monthly that focuses on international financial affairs and is owned by The Financial Times Ltd. – reported that the total value of Islamic banks and credit institutions had exceeded $1.39 trillion.
According to journal Iran topped the list of the biggest asset holders in the Islamic world, followed by Saudi Arabia ($257 billion), followed by Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.
 Bank of the Year  
In a 2015 comprehensive report dubbed “Islamic Bank of the Year Awards 2015”, The Banker named banks that had helped raise the profile of the key banking industry.
It named Bank Pasargad as the winner of the best Islamic bank in Iran, which has managed to “achieve impressive financial results while maintaining a commitment to product and service development.”
According to the report, the bank managed to boost its Tier 1 capital by 18.1% year on year in 2014, while its total sharia-compliant assets increased by 26.3% and net profits rose by 18.3% over the same period. Most impressively, non-performing loans (NPLs) remained stable at 5.91% and return on equity hit 31.86%. The bank’s success, according to the report, came despite an array of pressing challenges in the domestic market.
In addition, Bank Pasargad has successfully launched a range of innovative sharia-compliant products across its banking business lines.  
“Bank Pasargad managed to maintain a sustainable growth while Iran’s gross domestic product fell from approximately $480 billion to $403 billion,” Majid Ghasemi, vice-chairman and chief executive of Bank Pasargad, was quoted as saying recently.