Growth of Islamic Banking in Bangladesh Recent Trends in the Global Context

Abstract

Events of the last few years have forcefully shown the Muslim world's resentment of the West's power, influence and encroachment on its way of life. That power is nowhere more evident than in the finance arena, where Western banks and financial markets dominate but contradict strikingly with traditional Islamic beliefs. Over the past 25 years, however, a nonviolent challenge to that dominance has been building. The change has come from a caravan of Islamic financial institutions and Islamic subsidiaries of major international banks that have steadily expanded their operations. Islamic banking has gone from almost nothing to an industry with assets of hundreds of billions of dollars and half of the consumer market and 10% of the assets under management in countries such as Malaysia. Yet, it has not yet emerged as a truly revolutionary force in the financial world. Whether it can make that leap is a crucial question for every Islamic banker. An attempt has therefore been made in this paper to make an overview on the growth of Islamic banking in Bangladesh.