Business Desk: The country’s largest commercial bank Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, the first Shariah-based bank in South and Southeast Asia has stepped into 40 years of service. It is indeed a textbook ensemble of success for an exceptional banking institution in the all-embracing interest-based conventional banking in Bangladesh, as well as in this part of the world. Islami Bank has been the pioneer that turned the conventional approach of banking where clients to go to the bank, altering instead of being a Bank that goes to its clients.
IBBL is one of the propellers of the national economy. The bank with 16 million clients has created direct employment for about 8.4 million people as 38 percent of the country’s readymade garment and 60 percent of the textile sector has been running with Islami Bank’s investment. More than 6,000 industries, 2,000 agro-based industries, 26 jute mills, 421 shipping companies, more than 50,000 mass-transport vehicles, 50 cold storages and more than 1,000 auto rice mills across the country are being operated with the investment of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited. The present deposit portfolio of IBBL is Tk.1.40 trillion which is highest among the private and nationalized banks of the country that keep the country’s banking industry, and the economy, going.
Rated as the only Bank of the country in the globally acknowledged 1000 Banks of the world by The Banker magazine, this bank mobilizes one-third of the country’s foreign remittance. Over the last 39 years, IBBL has been the largest financier in the country’s import-export trade and SME investment. IBBL has long been accredited for playing as a partner in national development through a wide network across the country with more than 6,000 units and state-of-the-art banking services.
Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited has become a unique institution of trust and confidence of all people of the country irrespective of class, caste and religion. IBBL’s market share in the country’s import and export trade is 11.4% and 8% respectively. The Rural Development Scheme (RDS) of IBBL, a pioneer of Islamic microfinance in the world, has made 1.3 million marginalized families self-reliant. The country’s top taxpayer bank has been the only bank from Bangladesh listed among the Top 1000 Banks in the world since 2012. The bank has been awarded the World’s Best Islamic Bank by the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI).
IBBL started its journey on March 30, 1983 aiming to ensure equality and justice in all economic activities for achieving a sustainable and balanced growth and equitable socio-economic development of Bangladesh.
FinTech is the new technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services using smart-phones or internet. As part of the strategies, the country’s leading private commercial bank (PCB) has introduced different FinTech-based services including CellFin recently to attract a major segment of people, whose age limit are ranging between 18 and 40 years. The Shariah-based bank has also taken initiatives to upgrade its core banking software (CBS) aiming to provide world-class services to the clients.
IBBL is also working to ensure its cyber security and has already emerged as a systematically important and intensely pro-business, pro-environment and pro-ethically sound bank of Bangladesh. IBBL has already secured its top position among the top ten banks on sustainable rating of the Bangladesh Bank thanks to the confidence and allegiance of its nationwide clientele, where quality human resources, technology-based advancement and good corporate governance have been prevalent ever since its inception. The success of Islami Bank has allured its overseas partners so much that instead of selling shares they are rather interested to buy more shares.
