Event Review gif
• Trade Finance, • Project Finance, • Takaful and Re-takaful, and • Public Education in Islamic Finance.
Dheerasak Suwannayos, president of the Islamic Bank of Thailand, claimed “Seventy percent of our customers are non-Muslims, while thirty percent are Muslims. Among the customers we tend to target are prayer-mat manufacturers, jewellery manufacturers, and bakers. However, these customers are limited by their lack of working capital”. Other issues stressed by the president included market- ing, competition, and the institutions` targets for growth within the market.
Throughout, the talk focused specifically on developing approaches and strategies to deal with these issues in a non-Muslim nation. However, the application of these developed approaches is still relatively unknown within the wider industry - not to mention that most Islamic banks have difficulty competing with conventional lenders on price and market share.
“Islamic banks in Thailand should target both Muslim and non-Muslim communities,” said Suwannayos. On the other hand, Ruth Mar- tin, an executive board member at UKIFS, concluded with a pertinent note on public education on Islamic finance. She focused on methods of conveying to the public the ben- efits of interest-free lending. At the basis of the industry, she stressed, lies the problem of changing public perceptions around Islamic finance and Islam. She also noted that within non-Muslim countries, flexibility is crucially important for the organisation and growth of Islamic institutions. Needless to say, Martin
important for Islamic banks to be engaged in local communities. Indeed, the issue of mar- keting in Islamic finance still hinders the in- dustry to a great extent.”
The conference ended with a Question and Answer session in the annual Open Fatwa. The session was impeded somewhat by the lack of Islamic finance professionals present; it’s worth noting that most of the profession- als in the Islamic finance industry do not have sufficient finance-based knowledge, and are not Shariah scholars. However, the session did feature some remarkable industry ex- perts, including:
placed a firm emphasis on the proper use of potential approaches used to target Euro- pean Muslims. She claimed that getting the distribution channels right is the biggest pri- ority for Islamic financial institutions, coming before any exercise of distribution. Speak- ing on the same topic, Professor Humayon Edbiz, CEO of Edbiz Consulting, added: “For the Islamic banks to succeed, they need to relate their organisational objectives to the needs of the Muslim community in the UK”. The implication is that Islamic banks must properly identify the needs of the UK Muslim community in order to succeed in heavy en- gagement. Farhad Reyazat, Editor-in-Chief at Global Islamic Finance Magazine, says: “The conference helped us to understand why it is
• Omar Shaikh, from the UK Islamic Fi- nance Council, • Shaykh Haytham Tamim, from the Utrujj Foundation, • Bilal Khan, from IFEC, • Mian Nazir, from Dar Al Sharia Dubai Is- lamic Bank, and • Dr Aly Khorshid, from Academy UK.
The industry’s growth potential lies largely in the ability of these leaders and presidents of Islamic financial institutions to start applying more developed approaches, within the con- text of strong and aggressive growth strate- gies. Garnering greater competition for the Islamic finance industry is not just an option, but a must, for fully-fledged Islamic banks. More importantly, the creation of an innova- tive and effective structure is a crucial factor behind the success of the whole industry. The 2nd Annual World Islamic Finance Confer- ence covered a number of highly relevant and important points, whose application should be duly considered by all leaders within the Islamic finance and banking industry. gif
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