THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF ISLAMIC BANKS AND THEIR PLACE IN FINANCING SMEs

Abstract

The objective of this research is twofold; the first one is to compare the performance of Islamic and conventional banks in order to see how Islamic banks perform in comparison to conventional ones in North African countries during the year 2019, using the CAMEL method. The second goal is to determine the position of Islamic banks in financing the investment of SMEs in comparison to other financial institutions, as well as the reasons for accepting and, more importantly, refusing Islamic financial products offered by Islamic banks and their preferences through a survey conducted to Algerian SMEs. The results of the CAMELs method allowed us to compare the two types of banks through the different calculated ratios, along with the ANOVA results, which demonstrate that Islamic banks are on an equal level with conventional banks. The analysis of the results obtained from al Barak bank's data show that the level of financing SMEs' investment is very low compared to other types of financing. These results were confirmed by the survey, which shows that the majority of entrepreneurs prefer investing through conventional banks rather than Islamic banks, for a variety of reasons. As a result, when compared to conventional banks in Algeria, Islamic banks do not play a significant role in financing SMEs' investment.