Three State-Owned Banks Are Set To Establish Islamic Finance Units

With more than 600 institutions worldwide and with estimated $ 1.4 trillion Sharia-compliant assets in 2014, Islamic Finance ("participation banking") market in Turkey keeps growing and such growth is likely to continue in the future. Despite the size and the potential of the Islamic finance market, in 2014, Turkey has only four private participation banks. It is likely that this situation will not remain the same as the Turkish government is preparing the regulatory framework in order to introduce three state-owned banks in participation banking market.

The first participation bank in Turkey; AlBaraka Türk completed its establishment in 1985. Four years later the second participation bank Kuveyt Türk was established. These were followed by Bank Asya in 1996 and Türkiye Finans in 2005.