Emir Zainul

pitchIN, a Malaysia-based digital platform for investing and fundraising, has reaped the benefits from a dynamic equity crowdfunding scene in Malaysia attributed to the progressive regulators at Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), as it saw the first Shariah compliant company listed on its platform raising 890% of the fundraising target.

Tokyo-listed AEON Financial Service Co (AFS) and its Malaysia-based subsidiary AEON Credit Service (M) will go ahead to undertake the business of a digital Islamic bank in Malaysia with no external partners and an initial investment of RM175 million (US$38.63 million) each.

Islamic fintech companies are now incentivized to enter into the electronic payment business in Pakistan as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued revised regulations for electronic money institutions (EMIs) with the aim to enhance its outreach and scope of the service.

Maybank Islamic Bank has recently launched EzyWasiat, a digital will-writing service aimed at the Muslim community in Malaysia, and is seeking to expand the offering to other markets it operates in.

The Pakistani Islamic fintech sector is expected to get a boost as the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) will be accepting applications for testing in the fourth cohort of the regulatory sandbox from the 2nd May 2023 and will remain open for application submission until the 31st May 2023, as the regulator looks to continue promoting innovation in the Islamic fintech sector and encouraging start-ups.

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) is inching closer to fully launching its central bank digital currency (CBDC) — the digital dirham — for domestic and cross-border transactions with the commencement of the CBUAE CBDC Strategy, the first phase of which is expected to complete over the next 12 to 15 months.

Jurisdictions with Islamic banking systems could be more vulnerable to deposit disintermediation with the issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to the IMF in its recently issued working paper titled ‘Monetary Policy Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies: Perspectives on Jurisdictions with Conventional and Islamic Banking Systems’.

The UK’s Islamic fintech community could get a much-needed boost from the government as His Majesty’s Treasury has launched a new national hub for fintech named the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), enabling fintech firms to benefit from new waves of technological change and innovation— widening consumer choice, cutting costs and increasing efficiency.

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has launched a new program to accelerate...

Saudi Technology Venture (STV), the largest technology venture capital (VC) fund in the Middle East, has launched its Total Growth platform, which will utilize a newly developed product named Tanami that will act as a Shariah compliant non-dilutive venture debt instrument.

The Central Bank of Oman (CBO), in collaboration with 51%-state-owned telecommunications company Omantel, has...

Fintech firms in Saudi Arabia are set to get a boost in new business opportunities as the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced the launch of a new open banking services lab to allow businesses to test out their products against an established framework.

Two years after receiving a financial technology experiment permit (FinTech ExPermit) from the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) in 2020, Mudaraba Financial Company (MFC) has officially launched its Sukuk crowdfunding platform, which issues Sukuk on behalf of MSMEs as an alternative financing tool utilizing capital market instruments.