The Egyptian Association for Islamic Finance has revealed that the volume of Islamic banking in Egypt reached about EGP 390bn in June 2021, accounting for 5.1% of the Egyptian banking market, an increase of EGP 42.4bn (12.2%) over March 2020. According to a recent report of the association, the Egyptian banking market includes 14 banks that have a licence from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to provide Islamic banking products. There are also three Islamic banks in the country, namely Faisal Islamic Bank, Al Baraka Bank, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, in addition to 11 banks that have some branches for Islamic banking. The report explained that the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt is at the forefront of these banks, as its financial position amounted to about EGP 123bn in June 2021. This constitutes 31.5% of the volume of the Islamic banking market in Egypt. Moreover, Banque Misr's Islamic branches come in second place with a financial position of EGP 84.7bn, accounting for 21.7% of the Egyptian market. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Egypt ranked third with a turnover of EGP 77.6bn or 20% of the market. Al Baraka Bank comes in fourth place with a turnover of EGP 76.8bn or 19.7% of the Egyptian market. The report indicated that the volume of Islamic finance in Egypt amounted to about EGP 296bn in June 2021; representing 5.4% of the Egyptian banking market, an increase of EGP 25bn (9%) compared to June 2020. The volume of Islamic deposits in June 2021 amounted to about EGP 321.7bn, representing 7% of the Egyptian banking market, an increase of EGP 31.1bn (10.7%) from June 2020. There are 244 Islamic banking branches in Egypt, which constitute 5.5% of the total bank branches in the country. They serve about 3 million customers. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Egypt occupies the first place among Islamic banks in terms of its branch network with about 70 branches. In the second place comes Banque Misr with 44 branches. It is worth noting that the size of the Islamic banking industry worldwide is expected to reach about $3trn in 2021 and about $3.2trn in 2022, according to the report of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). The Egyptian market has witnessed the development of many Islamic banking products that meet the needs of customers, exceeding 50 products and services, and the market still needs to develop more Sharia-compliant products, whether for the individual or corporate sectors.
