by BERNAMA / pic by BLOOMBERG

MALAYSIA’S Islamic banking sector registered a capital adequacy ratio of 17.7 per cent in fourth quarter (Q4) 2019, the highest for the year, according to the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB).

IFSB’s country-level prudential and structural data on the Islamic banking sector is accessible on its website.

The latest data posted on IFSB’s Prudential and Structural Islamic Financial Indicators (PSIFIs) portal indicated an increase of 0.9 per cent from 16.8  per cent in the immediate preceding quarter, and represented the second highest level since Q4 2018 (17.9 per cent).

The 17th dissemination completes the availability of quarterly data from Q4 of 2013 to Q2 of 2020 from IFSB member jurisdictions.

In a statement today, IFSB said the PSIFIs project currently compiles data from 24 reporting countries, namely Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

IFSB secretary-general Dr Bello Lawal Danbatta said the database project, which began the implementation of its three-year Medium Term Plan under Phase V of the project in 2020, would continue to enhance the availability and quality of data on the Islamic banking sector.

“IFSB will continue to collect and disseminate timely data during these challenging times due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“The availability of data on the Islamic financial sector has never been more important, to enable the assessment of the impact of the crisis on the stability and growth of the Islamic financial sector,” he said.

The IFSB Task Force on PSIFIs comprising representatives from 24 participating jurisdictions has been facilitating the collection of Islamic banking data.

A total of six regulatory and supervisory authorities (RSAs) from the takaful sector and four RSAs from Islamic capital markets have joined the project to compile PSIFIs database for the respective sectors.

The IFSB completed the first dissemination of data on the takaful sector in September 2020.