MohammedAmin.comSerious writing for
serious readers
While some Islamic banks now make reasonable profits, overall the sector has not served its shareholders well.
Posted 30 May 2026
By definition, Islamic banks are banks.
A bank is a business that takes money from one group of people, usually called "depositors", and provides money to another group of people, usually called "borrowers." The purpose of a bank is to make money for its shareholders.
For my September 2025 column for the magazine "Islamic Finance News," I decided to look at the aggregate results of all of the UK's Islamic banks. Some have made money while others have lost it.
However the overall result of a profit of £30.9 million is lamentable given the time period (20 years) and the amounts of shareholder funds tied up in the capital of these banks. The aggregate average return on capital per year will be tiny, if anyone wants to compute it!
You can read my article below.
A commercial company has only one purpose. That is to make money for its shareholders, while complying with the law and with the religious requirements of its shareholders, management, and customers.
Privately owned Islamic banks have no reason for existing unless they make money, perhaps after first suffering startup losses. Against this criterion, how have the UK’s Islamic banks performed?
I have been relaying UK Islamic bank results for many years. However, since memory can be unreliable, I have updated the personal spreadsheet where I summarise their results.
Historical summary of UK Islamic banks' results GBP millions |
||||||||
Calendar year ended |
Al Rayan Bank, previously Islamic Bank of Britain |
Gatehouse Bank |
Bank of London and The Middle East |
QIB (UK) |
Kuwait Finance House, previously Ahli United Bank (UK) |
European Islamic Investment Bank |
ADIB (UK) |
Cross total |
2004 |
-5.8 |
-5.8 |
||||||
2005 |
-6.4 |
1.3 |
-5.1 |
|||||
2006 |
-8.8 |
1.2 |
-7.6 |
|||||
2007 |
-6.9 |
-4.4 |
0.2 |
-2.8 |
-4.5 |
-18.4 |
||
2008 |
-5.9 |
-8.5 |
2.4 |
-2.4 |
-14.8 |
-29.2 |
||
2009 |
-9.5 |
-12.1 |
-13.2 |
-1.7 |
-22.2 |
-58.7 |
||
2010 |
-8.1 |
-5.7 |
3.5 |
-1.2 |
-5.9 |
-17.4 |
||
2011 |
-9.0 |
-4.3 |
-8.9 |
0.1 |
-11.4 |
-33.5 |
||
2012 |
-7.0 |
2.4 |
3.8 |
-3.4 |
-11.0 |
-2.5 |
-17.7 |
|
2013 |
-5.7 |
4.0 |
4.3 |
-15.7 |
-0.1 |
-2.3 |
-15.5 |
|
2014 |
1.2 |
4.1 |
1.0 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
-3.7 |
4.5 |
|
2015 |
10.3 |
-0.8 |
-6.8 |
2.5 |
0.2 |
-4.0 |
1.4 |
|
2016 |
9.5 |
1.6 |
-21.4 |
-3.1 |
-8.4 |
-4.0 |
-25.8 |
|
2017 |
8.6 |
-0.4 |
3.5 |
1.7 |
-1.6 |
-3.3 |
8.5 |
|
2018 |
6.4 |
-15.9 |
10.7 |
3.7 |
-2.1 |
2.8 |
||
2019 |
6.1 |
3.0 |
8.7 |
4.4 |
-1.6 |
20.6 |
||
2020 |
3.8 |
2.1 |
0.9 |
4.7 |
0.3 |
11.8 |
||
2021 |
9.0 |
3.4 |
-4.3 |
6.9 |
15.0 |
|||
2022 |
16.5 |
8.1 |
-6.8 |
9.7 |
29.3 |
56.8 |
||
2023 |
23.0 |
3.1 |
1.3 |
11.9 |
34.8 |
74.1 |
||
2024 |
17.7 |
3.8 |
6.9 |
12.6 |
29.1 |
70.1 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
39.0 |
-16.5 |
-14.2 |
29.2 |
93.2 |
-76.6 |
-23.2 |
30.9 |
| Notes: | Kuwait Finance House publishes USD figures. These were converted to GBP using the FX rate on 25 August 2025. |
The ADIB (UK) 2020 result is 7 months to 31 July 2020. |
For simplicity, my table reports only one figure for each bank for each year. That is the profit after tax. While the key performance metric for a bank is return on equity, the first requirement is that there be a positive return!
European Islamic Investment Bank was a spectacular letdown for its shareholders, losing £76.6 million by the time it exited the UK. See my 3 July 2019 article “The sorry saga of European Islamic Investment Bank, now called Rasmala.” ADIB (UK) was a smaller loss maker which also exited the UK.
Gatehouse Bank has made small profits for the last six years, but its shareholders are still in an overall aggregate loss position. While Bank of London and the Middle East has slightly smaller aggregate losses than Gatehouse, its recent results are also more patchy.
Conversely Islamic Bank of Britain has been consistently profitable since it was taken over and renamed Al Rayan Bank. QIB (UK) has also made money for its shareholders in aggregate, and Kuwait Finance House has been consistently profitable since it entered the UK market.
The UK Islamic banking industry aggregate total of £30.9 million mixes together some disasters and some reasonable performances!
Mohammed Amin is an Islamic finance consultant and former tax partner at PwC in the UK.
