Sudanese Islamic Banking System Commerce Essay

The last thirty years have witnessed the appearance and rapid expansion of Islamic banking in Sudan as Islamic country and outside of Islamic countries. Islamic banks provide product and services that do not contravene with Islamic law and human conduct. The Islamic principles claim the Islamic banks to operate give an important role to social issues and developing economy as the hole.

The history of banking in Sudan started in 1903 which the first bank operated in Sudan was the national bank of Egypt in 1903 and plays the role of central bank in Sudan up to 1956, and followed by Barclays bank in 1913. The central bank of Sudan established in February 1960, which it drive the appearance of banking in Sudan, and during the period from 1962 to 1969 a numbers of domestic banks are established, and after that followed by a numbers of foreign banks and branches were allowed to operate such as Abu-Dhabi bank in 1976 and City bank in 1978. The year 1978 had witnessed the establishment of first Islamic bank in the Sudan that was Fisal Islamic bank, marked the first step to Islamise all Sudanese banks later, after that the success of Fisal Islamic bank during this period led to appear a number of Islamic banks such as Tadamon Islamic bank, the Sudanese Islamic bank, the Islamic Cooperative development bank and Al-baraka bank, all these banks succeeded to attracting more depositors, and hence, more branches were opened over all stat of Sudan.

In 1983 the government applied Shariah rules on all transaction that lead to Islimisation all banks and prohibited receiving or paying interest. In addition, during the period from 1985 to 1988 the new government issuing rules to open conventional banks; however it led to conflict between Islamic banks and conventional banks and this period characterised such as increase the private banks in banking market. Moreover, there are many irregularities and lack of interest by the competent authorities, causing a shake-up the Sudanese banking system has suffered and dropped, that refer to the following reasons:

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Firstly, has not received the decision with interest the responsible authorities and its implementation and follow-up of the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, Central Bank of Sudan and senior management of the banks at that time. Secondly, let each bank to the Islamisation of how to see without assistance and follow-up by Jurisdiction. Thirdly, the lack of staff trained and familiar with the nature of Islamic banking in the State-owned banks that have been converted to Islam about a dozen banks that any significant number. Finally, the survival of conventional bank personnel to overseeing the investment status in the main departments of investment banks branches of government. Available on Central Bank of Sudan (2010)

In 1992 the new government issued a more comprehensive law which envisioned an economy-wide Islamisation of the financial system including the government sector. Now all working banks are using Islamic modes of finance in all transactions. An important development worth mentioning is the attempt being made to eliminate interest from the government sector also. This led to increase the number of banks operating on the basis of Islamic mode of finance from 6 Islamic banks in 1980 to 29 in 1997 and to 33 in 2010. Also in this period a number of banks are merged such as government banks, and some foreign banks are terminated such as City bank. It can be in this report concerning on the last twenty years to explain and describe the structure and the type of business perform by Islamic banking in Sudan, also describe the main features of Islamic banking in Sudan. Iqbal and Molyneux (2004)

Characteristic and Objectives of Islamic Banking in Sudan:

The main characteristic and objectives of Sudanese Islamic banking system was revolve around sex elements which are explained in the following:

Firstly, Islamic finance involves a system of equity sharing and stake-taking. It works by the principle of a variable return depending on the real productivity and how well the project performs. Therefore, Islamic principle remains of equity, reward and risk sharing unlike the conventional concept. Secondly, Sudanese Islamic banking plays important role in the economy, which is to an extent a revolutionary development as it calls for new approach to the economy. Islam needs the economy; it’s most important monetary and business dealings, to change away from debt-based partnership to an equity based and stake taking relationship. While the  some debt-based transactions will still exist in the Islamic bank but it will be based on the principle of ‘Quard Hason’ (take for special case fore specific reason and guaranteed by equal amount deposited in investment account. e. g. if some company deposit large amount in investment account for one year and after 8 months need some amount for two months, then will take Quard Hasan for two months based on deposit amount in the investment account because it enable the company to gain the profit for this amount for two months which it can be provide the balance of investment account as guarantee to the bank). The overall purpose of the economy will be arranged towards equity based and risk sharing. Thirdly, in the Islamic mode ethics will play a key role. The ethical and social size will be essential to all economic activities, there will exist structure of ‘Halal’ (permissible) and ‘Haram’ (prohibited) within which all economic activity, private and public, has to be taken in place. The ethical issue will work at different levels and therefore morals will effect to the conscience of the entrepreneur and the firm, the society, the legal structure and the supervisory of the state. However, Islamic banks activities which would be treated the capitalist in Halal productivity and avoid gambling, prostitution, the promotion of alcohol, and any Haram productivity. Therefore social and ethical will be part of the Islamic economic system, and then all bank transaction will be made based on Shariha law and Islamic norms. Fifthly, the government of Sudan encourage the Islamic banking is entrepreneurial driven to directed for all not just towards financial expansion but also towards physical expansion of economic production and services. In the Islamic economy money will not produce money; it is expected to finance talent, innovation and new ideas, skills and opportunities. Whereas, conventional banking operates predominantly on the basis of financial collateral, therefore the more money you have, the more you can get. This means that the viability of a project mainly depends on the financial worth of the borrower; meaning that low collateral can reduce the chance of getting a loan, even if the project is viable and the person has impeccable character. Whereas, in the Islamic system collateral is not ignored but it is reduced, through the trustworthiness of the person, the viability and usefulness of the project; which is more important then the financial worth of the borrower. This means in the Islamic system greater emphasise is placed on human needs such as fair distribution, equity, community and individual development. Therefore, Islamic banking is more oriented towards the community, talent and entrepreneurship in Sudan to improve the individual income as specific objective and develops GDP as general objective. Finally, the Islamic system is non-inflationary; this is a very important and fundamental aspect of Islamic banking because the rate of inflation in Sudan slightly stable during last twenty years based on developed banking sector. The linkage between financial expansion, money supply and the physical expansion of the economy is a result of the financial and banking dynamics of the current time, however, the Islamic banking and finance restores the balance between these three variables. Stability in the value of money is a primary goal of an Islamic economy. Therefore all economic sectors are developed because Islamic banking helps to allocate resources between all sectors. Finally, provide financial services such as open accounts, transfer money, collecting checks, deposit and debit, and etc to the customers, Abdullah Hawiad (2008).

The Operation ofIslamic Banks in Sudan:

All Islamic banks in Sudan operate similar to conventional banks by providing three types of accounts; current accounts, saving accounts and investment accounts, in current accounts Islamic banks and conventional banks provide check book and take a fee and in saving account not take a fee and also not offer to holders of saving accounts profit but take permission of the account holder to use his funds in other business activities but this principal is guaranteed, today some banks offer saving account as current account to attractive the depositors in the market. In the investment account Sudanese Islamic bank are different from conventional and others Islamic banks in others countries by providing profit to the lender in the end of year and this profit is determined in the end of year because the banks take a money as modareb and not determine the percentage of profit because it depend on the all profit at the end of year, and also the investors agree in advance to share the profit and loss in a given proportion with the bank, but her the banks attractive the investors based on the percentage of profit divided to the investors in the previous year which how banks offer high percentage will gain a large amount from investors in the future. Therefore, Sudanese Islamic banks are similar to Islamic banks in any Muslim countries but the main idea in Sudanese Islamic banking structure is to in corporate the classical mudarabah into  a modern complex system in order to an interest-free banking system . The function of Sudanese Islamic bank can be explaining the structure of Islamic bank, the Islamic bank collect the funds from their investors is called Rab-al-mal, the Islamic bank is Mudareb (intermediary part or agent) which is transfer the funds to entrepreneurs based on Islamic modes of finance like murabaha, mudarabah, musharaka, bai-al-salam,muqawala, muzarah, and istisna, which the banks share the profit between the bank and the holders of investment accounts. . Magda Abdel Mohsin (2005)

Structure and Size of IslamicBanking in Sudan:

The remarkable change in Sudanese Islamic banking industry in the last two decades there are an improvement in the performance of Sudanese Islamic banks due to improving in the infrastructure, stable the economic policies, the best distribution of income and resource among different economic sectors and end of the civil war in Sudan. According to these factors Islamic banks in Sudan grow rapidly in terms of assets and deposits size and have maintained considerable profit level as shown by the represented balance sheets and income statements. In addition, the accounting published data show the contribution of these banks in full filling their social responsibility and in the reduction of poverty in Sudan as reflecting by the distribution of large amount of Zakah to the poor and needy people, also the government establish family banks which is specialist to provide finance to the talent, innovation and producers family. Magda Abdel Mohsin (2005).

Sudanese Islamic banking structure are grouped depend on economic sectors which are any groups are specialist to provide financial service for specific sector based on specific mode or instrument of Islamic finance. However, the authorized banks operating in Sudan is 33 banks which are grouped in two type’s commercial banks, so it represents 83% from all banking and which are include 2 banks are state-owned banks, 21 are joint banks and 4 are foreign banks branches. The second type is specialized banks, which it represents 17% in banking sector and also involves 5 banks are state-owned banks, which include industry development bank, will offer finance to industry sectors (long-term finance), Sudanese agricultural bank, so its large bank because agriculture represent a large sector in the economy, and Savings and Social Development Bank, and Family bank which is provide finance to producers family to improve individual income. In addition, Investment Bank is joint bank and specialized to issuing Sukuk in stock market and collect funds from lenders and invest these funds by them self in investment project without lending for a third party, (i.e. sharing between public, government and foreign). Available on Sudan Financial Times (2008).

Therefore Sudanese Islamic banks have mainly applied five modes of finance in their financial instruments which are Murabaha, Musharaka, Mudaraba, Salam and Muqaula, it can be explained in the following figures:-

Murabaha:

Murabaha is referred to particular kind of sell, where the banks  where the banks acquired the commodity and sell it to another client at profit margin or mark-up expressly disclosing to the purchaser the cost price that he has paid for the commodity.

Murabaha represent the main mode of finance in Sudanese Islamic banking and all commercial banks depend on this contract in finance because it provide large profit margin for the banks in short periods therefore the central bank of Sudan restricted this mode to be invested by all banks in 30% of all their investments operations and the maximum profit margin for this mode not greater than 9% per annum. The other reason to restrict Murabaha because the need of allocate resource during all economic sectors by the central bank. Available on Central bank of Sudan policies

Musharaka:Musharaka consist more than 50% of total finance because it use to finance in different sectors especially in industry sectors because it needs long term finance and also central bank take each banks option to determine the percentage and margin of Musharaka profit and sharing.

Mudaraba:Mudaraba is mainly applied investment bank because it specialized to collect money from depositors and invest this funds directly without lending to third party and also investment bank specialized to issuing Sukuk in stock market because it issued based on Mudaraba only in Sudanese stock market on the other hand the central bank take the investment bank option to determine the share of Mudarib in the realized profit in the end of project investment and then the investment bank offering the depositors more profit than other commercial banks to attract more funds from investors.

Other mode of finance:The other modes of finance include Salam, Muqaula and Istisna, the central bank encourages all banks to diversify the finance among different modes to reduce the risk and maximize profit. Salam is very useful mode of finance applied by agriculture bank and family bank to improve the agriculture sectors and improve the individual income and this mode of finance is supported by the central bank to finance customers without any collateral in the sectors of social and agriculture. Muqaula use to finance the real estate sectors and also istisna use to finance industry sectors this two modes of finance used by all commercial banks in Sudan, therefore, all domestic commercial banks established business units to compete the market and diversify the business and finance to maximize the profit and minimize the risk such as, Faisal Islamic bank (Sudan) established Takaful company, the real estate company and stock company to trade in Sukuk market. . Available on Sudan Financial Times (2008).

Foreign banks size and performance:

The foreign banks represent 12% from all Sudanese Islamic banks and attractive most of export and import finance which are applying different modes of Islamic finance because Sudan are suffering from scarcity of foreign currency due to the international ban and government ideology and foreign policy. Then foreign banks in Sudan play the significant rule to develop the export and import sectors by offering finance to issuing letter of credit and letter of grantee for all international transactions therefore it will drive the foreign market because it provide finance and service at low cost. Available on central bank of Sudan.

Conclusion:

Today Sudanese Islamic banking sector are grow rapidly and more successful in the last twenty years and successful to improve the economy in the all sectors. In the other hand, according to the technology development all Sudanese banks are linked by network which it enable them to provide clearing house service, ATM service, Internet service and point of sale service, however, the degree of competition in banking sector is very high because some banks use the IT as barriers to block the potential banks to enter the market and use IT to compete the current market because the degree of completion increase after Sudan export petroleum and also large foreign bank need to enter banking market to finance long-term finance and compete the foreign currencies and letter of credit finance because it provide high profit to the banks.

On the other side after ending the civil war and peace agreement in 2005 the central bank allowed conventional banks to start working in southern Sudan as its been mentioned in the conditions of the peace agreement but there are no literature of data available about the banks in southern Sudan because it established recently in 2008.

Reference:

• The Central Bank of Sudan Policies, available on http://www.cbos.gov.sd/english/policies.htm  last accessed 07.04.2010.
• Thirty Years of Islamic Banking: History, Performance and Prospects, Munawar Iqbal and Philip Molyneux (2004).
• Islamic Banking System, Islamic Banking Concept, Abdullah Hawiad(2008), available on http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1283093, last accessed 08.04.2010.
• Magda Abdel Mohsin (2005) The Practice of Islamic Banking System in Sudan, available on http://www.sesrtcic.org/files/article/82.pdf last accessed 02.04.2010.
• Islamic Banking in the Sudan available on Sudan Financial Times (2008) http://www.sudanfinancialtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=33, last accessed 08.04.2010.
• Central bank polices, available on http://www.bankofsudan.org/english/backge.htm last accessed 09.04.2010.
• Banking and Financial Sectors, available on central bank of Sudan  http://www.bankofsudan.org/english/id_e/banks/banks.htm, last accessed 09.04.2010