History

Establishment of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) by the OIC member states in the year 1975 has been proved to be a breakthrough in the expansion of Islamic Shari’ah based finance and specially banking throughout the world. As a founder member of IDB, the Government of Bangladesh also had the commitment to establish Islamic banks which was reflected in different steps taken by the government. The OIC members consented to the proposals to introduce Islamic economy and banking in their respective countries held in the foreign ministers’ conferences in 1978 and 1980 in Dakar and Islamabad respectively. In the year 1981, OIC in its 3^rd summit held in Makkah approved the proposition submitted by Bangladesh to introduce separate banking system following Islamic ideology. As per decision, the Government of Bangladesh sent representatives to the Middle Eastern countries to learn the existing banking systems in those countries.

In the private sector, the Islamic Economics Research Bureau (IERB) was the first organization that took active initiative in this regard. They arranged a national seminar on Islamic Economics and Banking in the year 1979 and inspired by the discussion and the papers presented in the seminars, some local bankers formed ‘Islami Bank Working Group’. The IERB again arranged an international seminar in 1980. After the seminar, Dhaka based ‘Muslim Businessmen Society’ (later renamed as ‘Industrialist and Businessmen Association’) under the leadership of renowned industrialist Abdur Razzaque Lasker, took initiative to establish an Islamic bank and applied to the government for permission. At this stage, the Government of Bangladesh provided necessary permission in the year 1983 and at last ‘Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd. ’ was registered under the Companies Act 1913 in which 19 Bangladeshi nationals, 4 Bangladeshi institutions and 11 banks, financial institutions and government bodies of the Middle East and Europe including IDB and 2 eminent personalities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia joined hands to make the dream a reality.

Growth and expansion

Since its startup, IBBL is maintaining a steady growth in terms of profitability and geographical coverage. 80s may be termed as ‘Foundation Stage’; during the 90s, the bank passed its ‘Early Growth Stage’ and during the first decade of the 21^st century, its making ‘Rapid Growth’. The growth fact file from 1983 – 2008 is given hereunder: