IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BANKING SECTOR OF PAKISTAN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ISLAMIC AND CONVENTIONAL BANKS

Abstract

Financial institutions specifically banking sector plays an essential role in day to day business life (Sultan & Siddique, 2010). In recent decades, Islamic banking experienced very rapid growth and the global financial crises of 2007 to 2009 has also contributed to accelerate its growth not only in Islamic countries but also in the rest of the world as well (Tarazi & Abedifar, 2020) because financial crises shed doubts on the stability and proper functioning of conventional banks (Milhem & Istaiteyeh, 2015; Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, & Merrouche, 2010). So along with the increasing uncertainty in the worldwide, it is presumed that such trend will move further upwards with the COVID-19 pandemic crises (Tarazi & Abedifar, 2020).