← Embedded Finance Index 2026

Libyan Islamic Bank

“Can a privately-owned Libyan Islamic bank digitise Libya's cash-heavy economy by building modern card, payments and digital banking infrastructure on top of a Sharia-compliant foundation?”

Founded2017
HQTripoli, Libya
IndustryBank / Islamic
The story

Founded in 2017 as Libya's first private Islamic bank, LIB began with traditional Sharia-compliant deposit-taking, financing (Murabaha, Ijarah, Salam, Istisna'), and branch-based services. The bank has progressively pushed toward digital banking: launching the Qasatly e-instalment platform in 2022, deploying Backbase as its digital banking engagement layer in 2025, and partnering with Arab Financial Services in 2026 to build a modern Visa card issuance and processing infrastructure. The strategic direction is to digitise Libya's largely cash-based economy from within the Islamic banking framework.

Last 12 months
2025-06
2026-05
Product timeline
2017
Libyan Islamic Bank founded as an Islamic financial institution operating under Sharia principles and Libyan banking legislation.· banking
2022
Launched 'Qasatly', Libya's first electronic instalment sale service, in cooperation with state mobile operator Al-Madar, enabling fully digital instalment contracts.· lending
2024
Masarat IT and financial services launched the Libank mobile banking application for LIB customers.· banking
2025
Went live with Backbase digital banking platform, modernising consumer banking services with a new integrated digital-first platform.· banking
2026
Announced strategic partnership with Arab Financial Services (AFS) to deploy AFS Visa card issuance, processing, tokenisation and digital infrastructure across LIB.· card
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Libyan Islamic Bank
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Libyan Islamic Bank’s embedded-finance stack
Card issuing
Arab Financial Services
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
9 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.