'Islamic banking can help address poverty'.

KARACHI -- Islamic banking can play a key role to address the four major challenges of poverty, income equality, regional disparity and illiteracy facing the country, said Austerity and Reforms Adviser Dr Ishrat Husain.

Delivering a keynote address at the third International Conference on Islamic Banking and Finance on Wednesday, organised by the Institute of Business Management (IoBM), Husain argued that Islamic banking can contribute heavily to solving poverty alleviation, affordable housing, microfinance, financial inclusion and educational outreach.

The two-day conference hosted international speakers from the USA, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Malaysia and Qatar.

'Those who do not believe in financial inclusion because of faith can be reached through Islamic banking,' he said.

The adviser highlighted that non-performing loans are one of the biggest challenges to the industry; Islamic banking, being Shariah-compliant, can assess the risk...