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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are PSIFIs?

PSIFIs – Prudential and Structural Islamic Financial Indicators is a project of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) to establish a global database of prudential statistics for Islamic financial services industry (IFSI). The indicators provide information on the soundness, stability and size of Islamic financial systems in participating jurisdictions. PSIFIs are indicators for the entire Islamic banking system in respective jurisdictions rather than supervisory indictors on the condition of individual institutions. PSIFIs cover aggregated data of Islamic banking institutions at the country level, compiled by the regulatory and supervisory authorities (RSAs) of the participating countries. Separate data are provided on stand-alone Islamic banks and Islamic windows of conventional banks in jurisdictions, where available.

Who is involved in the PSIFIs Project?

Article 4 of the IFSB Articles of Agreement mandates the IFSB to establish a global database of the Islamic financial services industry. Thus, this project mainly involves banking regulatory and supervisory authorities from the IFSB membership. In undertaking this task, the IFSB has benefitted from the Technical Assistance from both the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The current phase of the project is being undertaken with the assistance from the latter. The IFSB has also closely worked with the IMF in all the phases of this project.

Why are PSIFIs Important?

PSIFIs are important due to the limited availability of accurate, reliable and consistent statistical information on the Islamic financial services industry worldwide. PSIFIs are collected from the RSAs of participating jurisdictions, which ensures the reliability of the data presented. PSIFIs are benchmarked against the Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) Programme of the IMF. As such, it helps to provide greater comparability and consistency with the available data on conventional financial systems in the respective jurisdictions.

What are PIFIs and SIFIs, and how are they related to each other?

Prudential Islamic Financial Indicators (PIFIs) help monitor the strength and vulnerabilities of the IFSI with the objective of enhancing financial soundness and stability of the IFSI. The PSIFIs are further divided into Core and Additional Indicators, as following:

Core indicators are analytically significant, relevant in most circumstances (i.e. not country-specific), generally available and of high perceived usefulness. Such indicators include, for example, Capital Adequacy Ratios (CAR), Earning Ratios, Leverage Ratios and Liquidity Ratios etc.

Additional indicators are also relevant for financial stability assessment, but their importance may vary from one country to another. Such indicators include indicators such as Income distributed to investment account holders (IAH) out of total income from assets funded by profit-sharing investment accounts (PSIA) and Foreign-currency denominated funding to total funding.

Structural Islamic Financial Indicators (SIFIs) facilitate assessments related to the financial structure, the breadth and level of development of a country’s IFSI, as well as accessibility of the population to different IFSI segments.

A full set of indicators is on the PSIFIs portal at the IFSB website https://psifi.ifsb.org

What is the Compilation Guide and how can it be used as a guidance for PSIFIs?

The PSIFIs Compilation Guide is a comprehensive document, which provides information on key indicators, compilation procedures, aggregations and consolidation procedures, etc. It provides assistance to the data suppliers, data compilers as well as the users of the PSIFIs data.

The first Compilation Guide was issued by the IFSB in 2007, which was later updated in 2011. Some additional changes were made in the list of indicators in 2014 to incorporate the latest global regulatory developments and new IFSB Standards. These changes are compiled in the Supplement to Compilation Guide on PSIFIs, 2015.

What are the Data Template and Metadata?

Data template is a medium to collect and disseminate information on Structural and Prudential Indicators.

Metadata exhibits structured information that describes the data collection method, frequencies and other information that makes it easier for users to retrieve, interpret or manage the information resource. It is often called data about data, or information about information.

Who is participating in the Data Submission for PSIFIs?

Currently, banking regulatory and supervisory authorities (RSAs) from 17 countries are submitting their respective data. They are: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.

The full set of data submitted by these jurisdictions, with metadata, is available on the PSIFIs portal at the IFSB website https://psifi.ifsb.org.

Which sectors are covered in the current PSIFIs compilation?

As a starting point, the IFSB is focusing on the Islamic banking sector of its member countries due to its relative size and significance. The IFSB plans to collect and disseminate data on other sectors (Takāful, Islamic capital markets and other nonbank financial institutions) at a later stage.

How is the PSIFIs Database structured?

The Indicators are subdivided into two parts: The first set refers to stand-alone Islamic banks – these are separately incorporated, or are independent subsidiaries of other banks. The second set refers to Islamic windows of conventional banks – which refers to the Islamic finance activity of conventional banks. Depending on bank practices or national accounting guidance, data on activity of windows can be either segregated from the conventional bank activity or intermixed with conventional banking activity such as in the form of capital adequacy or liquidity ratios, which apply at overall bank level in most jurisdictions. In some countries, windows are not permitted or data on windows are lacking.

How will the IFSB disseminate the data?

The data will be disseminated through the IFSB website where a dedicated portal has been created to access and download the data. This portal includes information on the indicators, available historical series, and metadata describing compilation methods and country specific information.

The IFSB plans to develop a web-based system for online submission and dissemination of the PSIFIs data.

The IFSB will issue a press release on each data release, which would provide overall information on the most recent data, revised indicators, as well as highlight other relevant issues. Over time, with a significant complication of data, periodic volumes may be published that will provide time-series data for the participating countries.

The data and metadata is being disseminated separately for each country/jurisdiction. In addition to viewing the information, users have the option to download the data in Microsoft Excel format. Some exhibits and aggregate data are also provided on the webpage for selected indicators.

Can the PSIFIs data be printed and downloaded?

Yes, all the PSIFIs data are disseminated in PDF and excel formats, allowing users the option to print the data in both the formats. The IFSB is working on building an automated system that will provide users with more user-friendly features on viewing, filtering and downloading the data.

Does the data provide any facility for filtering and downloading the information?

Data filtering facility is currently not available on the system. However, users can download the excel file and filter the data as they wish. With the availability of a web-based, online system in the future, users will be able to filter and download the data from the PSIFIs portal (https://psifi.ifsb.org) on the IFSB website.

What is the frequency of PSIFIs data collection?

Data is targeted to be collected on a quarterly basis. However, the project provides the flexibility to member countries to submit data on a longer time frame, subject to the availability of data.

Is the data approved by the IFSB?

No. The IFSB reviews the data submitted by the participating countries to ensure the consistency and comparability of PSIFIs over different periods and across different jurisdictions. The IFSB mainly plays the role of facilitating the collection and dissemination of the data and is not involved in the audit or approval processes of the data set/s. The submission of data, and approval for its dissemination, are the responsibility of the relevant country authorities.

What is the contact point for any queries on PSIFIs data?

You can send your queries to: [email protected]