Asia > Southern Asia > Pakistan > Pakistan launches media campaign to boost Islamic finance

pakistan: Pakistan launches media campaign to boost Islamic finance

2013/07/20

Pakistan’s central bank has launched a mass media campaign to raise awareness and acceptance of Islamic finance part consumers in the world’s second most populous Muslim country.

The campaign is part of an overhaul of Islamic finance activities in Pakistan, which as well includes the establishment of a country-level sharia board and new rules for sharia-compliant financial products.


The central bank is rolling out a five-year plan for Pakistan’s Islamic banking sector, which follows religious principles such as bans on interest and pure monetary speculation.

“There still prevails a significant people that is either unaware of Islamic banking or have confusions and misconceptions about its current paradigm,” said central bank governor Yaseen Anwar at the launch of the campaign on Thursday.


The campaign, developed alongside local Islamic banks, would help the industry reach ambitious targets inclunding a doubling of its branch network in five years and a 15 % share of the banking system, Anwar added.


As of March, the industry held an 8.7 % share of banking assets and 9.7 % of deposits, central bank data shows.
The country’s Islamic banking industry includes five fully-fledged Islamic banks and five takaful (Islamic insurance) firms, with an additional 12 conventional banks offering services through Islamic windows.


Anwar added the central bank is as well at an “advanced stage” of issuing a detailed sharia governance framework, which would outline roles for directors, management and sharia boards.


Before this week, the central bank adopted a world standard for Islamic bonds, which could help issuers attract investors from the Gulf and elsewhere.

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