ISFIRE celebrates success stories in Islamic banking and finance (IBF). This quarter’s success story is told through an extensive interview of Hasan Al Jabri, CEO of SEDCO Capital. This follows some very distinguished cover stories shared with our ssreaders in the last three years. The most notable of the cover stories in 2014 was that of His Excellency Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, whose government continues to play a lead role in the global developments in IBF. Hasan Al Jabri’s story is equally inspiring, as he led a team of asset managers based in Saudi Arabia to bring the social responsibility concerns to the forefront of Islamic asset management on a global level.
Social responsibility is a focus of policy debate all over the world. Sooner or later, IBF will have to embrace it to maintain its relevance to the masses. The profitability of Islamic financial institutions is on a rise, and with it its commitment to social responsibility must be firmed up. Pharmaceutical firms around the world, while being immensely profitable, are now committing themselves to patient assistance programmes by way of offering free or discounted access to medicine to those who otherwise cannot afford to pay for costly medical treatment. Islamic banks and financial institutions will have to gradually show their commitment to the financially excluded – those who either have no access to financial services or cannot afford to pay for such an access.
Without committing to social responsibility, Islamic banks and financial institutions will find it difficult to appeal a new generation of users of financial services, who are increasingly becoming aware of and committed to social issues. Dr Sofiza Azmi’s article highlights this new trend. She points out that only a fraction of the Gen-Y uses Islamic financial services beyond basic products like current accounts. Islamic banks can make further inroads into the younger generations by offering services consistent with a modern financial lifestyle.
Corporate governance in IBF is the focus of an article contributed by Mezbah Uddin and Romzie Rosman. Financial reporting in the context of Malaysian Islamic financial services industry should be of interest to the regulators who are looking into developing similar regimes in their respective countries.
A unique feature on ownership and control in IBF is included in this issue. It looks into the shareholdings of some of the major players in IBF to detect any hidden agenda or non-business motives of the promoters. The readers will observe that IBF is a purely business phenomenon, with shareholders driven by profit motive as much as their conventional counterparts. Some of the leading personalities in IBF are also mentioned in this context.
We have Roslina Abdul Rahman, CEO of Amundi Islamic Malaysia Sdn Bhd, as our featured personality under our regular Personality interview. A detailed interview of Mohd Razlan Mohamed, CEO of MARC, is included to give an insight into the company that won a Global Islamic Finance Award as the best Islamic rating agency in Dubai last year. So big is the success story of MARC that we decided to interview the man who has been behind the recent success of a global Islamic rating agency.
In this issue, we also focus on Islamic financial education. A comprehensive report is included to highlight challenges and opportunities in development of human resources and nurturing talent in IBF.
In Pause for Thought, I have argued for developing Lahore as a centre of excellence for IBF. This is followed by my participation in the third Global Forum on Islamic Finance, organised by COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Lahore on March 11-12, 2015. Lahore certainly deserves attention of the global Islamic financial services industry, and so is Almaty where we are holding our fifth Global Islamic Finance Awards at the end of September this year.
Patrick Mahdi O’Neil continues with his two-part analysis of the monetary system based on debt-based money creation, with a view to suggest an Islamic solution. Dr Nafis Alam is our new contributor who has written on exchange-traded funds.
The readers will observe that this issue of ISFIRE has improved significantly in terms of design and format. This is due to the collective efforts of Edbiz team, especially Fahad Alvi who has spent considerably more time in improving the outlook of the magazine. I am thankful to the entire team and all the contributors who have made ISFIRE as number-one publication in IBF. From this issue, ISFIRE has become official publication of Islamic Bankers Association – a London-based body representing interests of the global community of Islamic bankers and associated professionals.
