Sedania As Salam Capital (SASC), an Islamic fintech solutions provider owned by Malaysian company Sedania Innovator, has joined the race to secure a digital banking license in the country, past the 30th June 2021 deadline that Bank Negara Malaysia had set for applications.
SASC signed an MoU with financial advisory company FCA Capital for the latter to act as the financial advisor for a SASC-led consortium that submitted a bid for a license to operate a digital Islamic bank with a special focus on Waqf transactions. Other members of the consortium have yet to be named.
“The consortium believes that a Waqf digital Islamic bank can play a major role in supporting national economic recovery via its inclusive model both in terms of services and in terms of ownership of the bank,” a statement from SASC read.
Khairul Nisa Ismail, CEO of SASC, added: “We are confident that FCA will play a pioneering role in the development and establishment of a digital Waqf banking business model in the region and subsequently unlock the potential of Waqf economics.”
The consortium is the second applicant with an emphasis on the practice of Waqf, with AWQAF Holdings having formed a consortium that applied for the same in October. The central bank had announced the closure of the six-month application period at the end of June, with 29 applications for a digital banking license received. BNM will announce the successful applications and grant up to five licenses in the first quarter of 2022.
In Malaysia, the central bank and the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia continue their work on developing the potential of Waqf to empower the economy. Six Islamic banks are involved in the implementation of Waqf: Affin Islamic Bank, Bank Islam Malaysia, Bank Muamalat Malaysia, Bank Rakyat, Maybank Islamic and RHB Islamic Malaysia.
SASC’s core business features As-Sidq, a Shariah compliant digital commodity trading platform that facilitates brokerage of digital commodities for financial institutions’ Tawarruq requirements. To date, the company has served over 70 financial institutions with more than RM60 billion (US$14.42 billion) in loans processed, it said.