In the past decade the sector has grown strongly along with the number of licensees. Total assets jumped from $ billion in 2000 to $ billion by June 2009, an increase of over 12 times. The market share of Islamic banks correspondingly increased from 1.8% of total banking assets in 2000 to 11.1% in June 2009.
There are now 26 Islamic banks and 19 Islamic insurance companies (takaful) operating in the Kingdom. Given the large regional share of Islamic financial institutions which are based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, it is clearly essential to create an appropriate framework for regulating and supervising the Islamic banking sector. This is an important function of the CBB.