CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PRACTICES OF ISLAMI BANK BANGLADESH PLC: AN ANALYSIS OF SHARIAH-BASED CSR INITIATIVES, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS), AND POVERTY REDUCTION

Abstract

This study investigates the Shariah-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC (IBBL), the pioneer and largest Islamic commercial bank in South and Southeast Asia. It examines their contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a developing-country context. Bangladesh's banking sector has faced growing regulatory and stakeholder pressure to move CSR spending beyond ad hoc philanthropy toward measurable social and environmental outcomes. However, Shariah-compliant banks pursue this obligation through a distinct doctrinal lens grounded in maqasid al-shariah rather than purely secular CSR theory. The study examines the sectoral allocation, doctrinal grounding, and trend of IBBL's CSR expenditure over the past two decades and its alignment with SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). This study employs secondary data drawn from IBBL annual reports, Bangladesh Bank Sustainable Finance Department disclosures, peer-reviewed academic studies, and financial-press reporting on Bangladesh Bank's CSR bulletins for the period 2005–2025. The results show that IBBL was the single largest bank-level CSR spender in the sector in both 2022 (BDT 327 crore) and 2023 (BDT 100 crore), with disaster management, education, and health historically absorbing the largest shares of its cumulative CSR outlay, which surpassed BDT 300 crore between 1983 and 2013 alone. The findings of this study suggest that IBBL's CSR portfolio is disproportionately weighted toward the Shariah category of daruriyyat (necessities) relative to complementary and embellishing categories, that sector-wide CSR expenditure in Bangladesh peaked in 2022 before declining sharply amid tighter loss-recognition and profit-reporting standards through 2025, and that IBBL's CSR trajectory closely tracks, and periodically outweighs, this broader sectoral pattern. Practical and policy implications for SDG-aligned Islamic banking are outlined.

 JEL Classification Codes: G21, M14, Q56, O15.