Current Status of Islamic Financial Institutions Number of IFIs

What is the total number of Islamic financial institutions operating currently in the world? It is not possible to answer this question with a degree of certainly. The set of IFIs in the world would include all the institutions in the above-mentioned three categories. However, the number of institutions in some of these categories is not known exactly. Nevertheless, it is possible to make some reasonable guess.

Keeping in view the fact that all commercial banks in at least three countries, viz. Iran, Pakistan and Sudan are required to conduct their activities in accordance with the Islamic principles and also including the IFIs operating in the unorganised sector in some Muslim as well as non-Muslim countries, the total number of institutions which adhere to Islamic principles and could be described as IFIs may be close to a thousand. However, due to lack of reliable information it is preferable to confine this section only to IFIs operating in the organised private sector.

Professor Ausaf Ahmed

Source: Elimination of Riba, Khurshid Ahmad, Khalid Rahman and Zahed A. Valie. Republished with permission.