The country has been active in Islamic finance since the early 1980s and is the fifth largest market for Islamic finance in the world. It is home to some of the world’s largest Islamic banks, who held 26 percent of total banking assets in the country and 6 percent of the global Islamic banking assets in 2020.
The volume of assets of Qatari Islamic banks amounted to QAR 415.8 billion in 2019 compared to QAR 350 billion in 2018.
The Islamic banks in the country witnessed a strong year on year performance with an increase of the profits by 15.4 percent to QAR 18.6 billion (USD 5.1 billion) in 2019 compared to 2018.
More than 90 percent of the total revenues came from activities related to financing or funding and investing in 2019.
The field of Islamic financial technology is expected to see a significant growth in the future. A key advantage of the jurisdiction is the strength of the conventional Islamic financial institutions in the country. It will allow the fintechs to work in a robust financial system with very well established peers with important and relevant core competencies.
The Islamic FinTech market in Qatar was valued at QAR 3.1 billion (USD 849.0 million) in 2020 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.6 percent to reach QAR 7.3 billion (USD 2.0 billion) by 2025.
In addition, Qatar has ranked among top ten countries in the Global Islamic Fintech (GIFT) Index.
The growth is attributed to the progress in the development of the regulatory environment of Qatar’s Islamic finance sector and the intention to advance and enhance it in support of the national economy.
Qatar has been working on adopting technology as part of the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030) for many years. It includes the launch of the Qatar Fintech Hub (QFTH) with a wide mandate and a lot of initiatives to attract the world’s best talent to the country.
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