Iran's banks were somewhat insulated from the global financial turmoil affecting the developed world. Although profits across the sector remained relatively static in The Banker's Top 1000 listings this year, a boom in Islamic financing has added much-needed ballast to banks' bottom lines. Iranian banks now hold $235bn of sharia-compliant assets, which makes up 37.5% of total sharia-compliant assets worldwide.
In fact, The Banker's Top 500 Islamic Institutions ranking, published last October, shows Iran has more Islamic assets than all other countries and its banks account for six of the top 10 Islamic institutions worldwide. Bank Melli Iran has the most sharia-compliant assets in the world at $48bn. The others in the top 10 are Bank Saderat Iran, Bank Mellat, Bank Tejarat, Bank Sepah and Bank Keshavarzi.
