Islamic Finance: Prospects & Opportunities

Speaking at the “Linking United Kingdom & Malaysia: Opportunities and Solutions in Fundraising and Investments” forum in the UK, Mr Bakarudin Ishak, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia highlighted Islamic finance as an opportunity for closer collaboration between the UK and Malaysia.

Extracts of the Assistant Governor’s speech follow below.

Increased participation of non-Muslim jurisdictions

The increased participation of non-Muslim jurisdictions also reflects the positive acceptance of Islamic finance among the global community. Sukuk has drawn strong interests as an attractive source of funding and a new asset class.

UK, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and South Africa issued sovereign sukuk last year. With this leadership taken by the British Government, UK became the first non-Muslim country to issue sovereign sukuk of GBP200 million that attracted strong demand of more than 10 times. Hong Kong issued the second sovereign sukuk in 2015 following its successful inaugural issuance. The sovereign issuances are hoped to pave the way for corporate sukuk issuances particularly from these jurisdictions.

Another landmark transaction is the syndicated Islamic financing facilities of GBP467 million for the Battersea Power Station Phase 3 project in London. The involvement of our Malaysian players in some of these global transactions has encouraged cross-border business transactions and enhanced collaboration with players in other jurisdictions.

Despite the above, sukuk recorded a lower amount of new issuances of USD40 billion during the first half of 2015 due to a slowdown in the current global financial markets and still-low oil prices. Malaysia remained the key jurisdiction for sukuk origination with issuances of USD19.8 billion or 50% of total market share.

Malaysia has evolved into a multicurrency sukuk issuance marketplace with issuances in US Dollar, Chinese Renminbi, Singapore Dollar and Japanese Yen. Our banks, Islamic fund management companies and professional service providers, some of whom are with us today, have global capabilities and expertise in advising and managing cross-border financing and investments. The diverse range of institutional investors creates a strong demand for sukuk that efficiently channel funds and liquidity in the market.

Tesco, a UK-based company, opted for sukuk issuance rather than bond under its conventional and Islamic MTN program due to the cost effectiveness of issuing the former.

New Developments in Malaysia

Malaysia has promulgated the new Islamic Financial Services Act or IFSA in 2013 to provide for a comprehensive regulation and supervision of Islamic financial sector in compliance with Shariah. Under IFSA, Islamic banks are required to segregate deposits that are principle guaranteed from investment accounts that are non-principal guaranteed. This allows Islamic banks to develop a wider range of products to meet investor risk-return preferences where the return to the investor will be more directly linked with the performance of the deposit fund. The financing extend beyond debt-based to include equity-based financing. This effort will further promote economic growth by broadening the financial intermediary role of Islamic banks.