IslamicFinance.de

The Banker’s 2019 Top Islamic Financial Institutions rankings show overall asset growth in the sector. The Middle East saw a bifurcation during 2018, with the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) witnessing very different growth to the rest of the region. While the number of Islamic finance institutions continues to grow worldwide, none of these new institutions broke ground in virgin territory. This suggests the geographic spread of sharia-compliant banking has come to an end, or at least a temporary halt. Sharia-compliant assets worldwide rose by 8.05% to $1656bn over 2018. Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have posted strong gains, from very different positions. Sub-Saharan Africa saw its sharia-compliant assets grow 18.2% to $18.79bn in 2018, overtaking Australia/Europe/Americas in the process.