As economies evolve and financial institutions do more business through Islamic or sharia-compliant channels, leading countries such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Kuwait will rise up the rankings.
The share of these three countries, for example, in terms of SCAs as a proportion of total financial assets is relatively low, and well below the 100% sharia compliance claimed by Iranian institutions. The Banker believes that these ratios will change as more institutions adopt SCAs but in the meantime, two lists of the fastest growing institutions in terms of SCAs, both in percentage change and asset terms are provided.
Heading the fastest growing by percentage change is Pakistan’s UBL Ameen with growth of 3925.2%. This is followed by one of the major banks in the entire listing, Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank, which shows growth of 772.1%, and then Pakistan’s Askari Bank and National Bank of Pakistan with growth of 600.5% and 366.2%, respectively.
Included in these leading fast-growers are also a number of insurance companies: Watania Co-operative Insurance Company, El Nilein Insurance Company and Allied Co-operative Insurance Group, which have growth rates of 314.6%, 300.9% and 275.7%, respectively. Heading the fastest growing group in dollar terms is the Iranian bank, Bank Keshavarzi, with growth of $16.3bn in SCAs. Kuwait Finance House is another significant mover, jumping up by $9.5bn in SCAs.
Among the leading 10 institutions in this growth category are six Iranian banks, which all claim that their entire financial assets are 100% sharia compliant. As a mark of new players in this field the UK-based HSBC Amanah is placed sixth on this growth table, with expansion of $5.5bn in SCAs.
