An assessment of Islamic Banking in Asia, Europe, USA, and Australia

Abstract

The paper reviews the progress of Islamic banking in two major regions, including Asia and the Western world. The paper offers an inclusive discussion of Islamic banking initiatives in several countries of the globe, specifically the countries from the Middle Eastern region, Europe, Australia, Asia, and North America. The discussion for Asian countries includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Oman, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The paper also appraises the development of the Islamic banking setup in the Western world. The Islamic banking status in the west covers the following countries: United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Canada and the USA. The review of Islamic banking in the two major world regions reflects a progressive Islamic banking setup. The paper entails a qualitative approach to evaluate the Islamic banking progress in various countries by extracting data from different sources, including central banks and other important financial and regulatory institutions. The study affirms that the Islamic banking paradigm emerged and flourished from the Asian states, specifically Middle Eastern and Asian countries, including Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Malaysia, Pakistan and Iran. The findings also suggest that the Islamic banking model has progressed gradually in European and other countries like Australia, the USA and Canada, which warrants a promising potential for the global Islamic banking sector.