The outreach of Islamic banking institutions (IBIs) continue to grow in Pakistan and their branch network crossed the 4,000 mark in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2021-22 with the addition of 103 new branches across the country.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s Islamic Banking Bulletin for the period April- June 2022, the number of Islamic banking windows reached 1,463 with the opening of 45 more dedicated counters at conventional branches by the end of June this year.

However, the IBIs’ composition remained the same with 22 IBIs, including 5 full-fledged Islamic banks and 17 conventional banks with Islamic banking branches.

During the period under review, the branch network of IBIs was recorded at 4,086 spread across 129 districts of the country, the bulletin said.

The data showed that full-fledged Islamic banks had 1,718 branches while conventional banks had 2,208 standalone Islamic banking branches. Besides 1,463 Islamic banking windows at conventional branches, both the Islamic and conventional banks had 160 sub-branches as well.

The data showed that Punjab province had 2,025 Islamic banking branches and windows, Sindh had 1,107, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had 505, Islamabad had 204, Balochistan had 155, Azad Kashmir had 58 and Gilgit Baltistan had 32.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk