Islamic banks continue raising funds

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s Islamic banks maintained their upward momentum in the first quarter of 2013, continuing a trend that began last year, according to an association of the lenders.

The Participation Banks Association of Turkey (TKKB) said Turkey’s four Islamic lenders, also known as participation banks, raised 53.1 billion Turkish Liras in funds in the first three months of the year, an 8 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The banks yielded 226 million liras in net profit in the first three months of the year.

Islamic banks operate in compliance with Islamic financial rules which ban interest. Along with the rising presence of Islamic-compliant financial instruments in the global financial markets, Turkey’s Islamic banks benefited from decreasing confidence in regular lenders in the wake of the global crisis.

“The share of participation banking overall banking sector fell to 1 percent in 2011. We raised it to 6 percent in 2012. Out growth is on the upturn,” Albaraka CEO Fahrettin Yahşi told Anatolia agency yesterday. Turkey’s four participation banks, Albaraka, Bank Asya, Kuveyt Türk and Türkiye Finans, have 836 branches among them across the country.