Islamic banks have fared well in balance sheet growth than their conventional counterparts last year, the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has said in a report.
Average asset of the Islamic bank group recorded significant growth of 9.4% as compared to 4% in 2018, QCB said in its 11th Financial Stability Review.
“This higher growth was mainly on account of the merger of a conventional bank with an Islamic bank. Accordingly, the conventional bank group’s assets growth stood lower at 4.1%,” QCB said.
At the same time, foreign banks group could reduce the pace of decline in growth. Frequency distribution of average asset growth shows, nine banks recorded only a marginal growth in asset (below 5%) while other seven banks have recorded asset growth above the banking sector average, it said.
The major three banks, which cover around 69% of the total banking sector assets, recorded a growth of 6.5% significantly higher than the banking sector average.
Thus, concentration of assets to the major three banks increased over last year, QCB said.
The growth in average credit and deposit among the bank groups during the year followed the same pattern as of assets.
“With merger of two banks, credit as well as deposit growth was highest among the Islamic banks group. Though credit registered a moderate growth, deposits declined during the year for conventional banks.
“Foreign bank group continued to register negative growth for credit as well as deposits, though the pace of decline was lower compared to last year,” QCB said.
