Islamic banks participation, concentration and profitability : avidence from mena countries

Abstract EN

Using cross-country bank level data, this paper examines the performance of Islamic banks in a sample of 12 Middle East/North African (MENA) countries, looking specifically at the impact of their participation on the profitability and efficiency of the overall banking sector.

Simple statistical tests indicate that there are significant differences in the levels of profitability and riskiness between Islamic banks and their conventional counterparts.

A closer look at the data shows that Islamic banks remained small in size, narrowly focused, and posed no serious competitive threat to their conventional counterparts.

Given the profitability and efficiencies of Islamic banks mentioned above, our analysis argues that MENA countries could benefit from liberalizing Islamic banks entry restrictions.