Over 840 Islamic banks branches to be opened by 2012

In Pakistan the initiative to introduce Islamic Banking in Pakistan was launched back in 2001 when the government decided to promote Islamic banking in a gradual manner and as a parallel and compatible system that is in line with best international practices.
Meezan Bank Limited (MBL), which was granted a license on 31st January, 2002, commenced operations from March 20, 2002, as the first Islamic bank of the country. Since then the industry had been continuously showing impressive growth, surpassing the growth rates recorded by the conventional banks during the past five years.
Currently there are 6 full-fledged licensed Islamic banks (IBs) and 12 conventional banks have licenses to operate dedicated Islamic banking branches (IBBs). All of the five big banks in Pakistan are providing Islamic banking services. The total assets of the Islamic banking industry are over Rs. 225 billion as of 30th June, 2008 which accounts for a market share of 4.5% of total banking industry assets.
The market share of deposits stands at 4.2%. Total branch network of the industry comprises of more than 358 branches with presence in over 50 cities & towns covering all the four provinces of the country and AJK.
Globally the Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) together are likely to be now one trillion dollar industry with the setting up of over 250 IFIs that have managed to mobilise $400 billion and remaining from Islamic capital markets across over 60 countries including non-Muslim countries.