Islamic Finance: A Quest for Publically Available Bank-level Data

Attend a seminar or read a report on Islamic finance and chances are you will come across a figure between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion, referring to the estimated size of the global Islamic assets. While these aggregate global figures are frequently mentioned, publically available bank-level data have been much harder to come by.

Considering the rapid growth of Islamic finance, its growing popularity in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, and its emerging role in global financial industry, especially after the recent global financial crisis, it is imperative to have up-to-date and reliable bank-level data on  Islamic financial institutions from around the globe.

To date, there is a surprising lack of publically available, consistent and up-to-date data on the size of Islamic assets on a bank-by-bank basis. In fairness, some subscription-based datasets, such Bureau Van Dijk’s Bankscope, do include annual financial data on some of the world’s leading Islamic financial institutions. Bank-level data are also compiled by The Banker’s Top Islamic Financial Institutions Report and Ernst & Young’s World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report, but these are not publically available and require subscription premiums, making it difficult for many researchers and experts to access. As a result, data on Islamic financial institutions are associated with some level of opaqueness, creating obstacles and challenges for empirical research on Islamic finance.

The recent opening of the Global Center for Islamic Finance by World Bank Group President Jim Young Kim may lead to exciting venues and opportunities for standardization, data collection, and empirical research on Islamic finance. In the meantime, the Global Financial Development Report (GFDR) team at the World Bank has also started to take some initial steps towards this end.

The GFDR team has compiled the names of about 400 Islamic financial institutions from 58 countries in the first version of its publically available Islamic Banking Database. Currently the dataset presents financial data for 73 of these institutions, which accounts for about $674 billion of the global Islamic assets (Table 1). To ensure accuracy, the information presented in the Islamic Banking Database is obtained from financial statements of the financial institutions, central banks, the Islamic Development Bank, and other regulatory and supervisory bodies. An earlier version of the dataset was also made available at the country level in Appendix C of the 2014 GFDR.

The Islamic Banking Database is currently in its first version. Financial data for the other 300+ institutions will be published in several iterations as they are compiled. So, please make sure to check back frequently. In the meantime, your comments and suggestions are welcome at GFDR2014@worldbank.org!

Table 1. Islamic Assets, Liabilities, and Income, 2012 (by institution)