The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) will be publishing its second edition of the SC Waqf book as part of its efforts to promote Waqf development through the Islamic capital market in Malaysia, according to Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs).
The book aims to strengthen and complement the National Waqf Master Plan that is to be launched by the government soon.
The publication of the book follows its first edition titled ‘Waqf Assets: Development, Governance and the Role of Islamic Capital Market’ published in 2014, which was a product of the 5th SC–Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Roundtable on Islamic Finance held in March 2014. The theme of the roundtable was ‘Harnessing Waqf into a Bankable Social Financing and Investment Asset Class’.
“The publication of this book is also expected to encourage the involvement of Waqf enforcers, industry professionals, financial institutions and other stakeholders to create a collaborative synergy that will spark new ideas and initiatives for Waqf development at a global level,” Mohd Na’im said during his keynote address at the inaugural Waqf and Islamic Capital Market Conference 2023 today.
On top of that, Mohd Na’im added that a strategic report will also be produced by the SC and strategic partners to gather the findings from the conference and a roundtable session that will be held on the second day of the conference for future reference for stakeholders.
Meanwhile, SC Executive Chairman Dr Awang Adek Hussin noted that six Waqf-featured funds have been issued since the launch of the Waqf-Featured Fund Framework (WQ-FF) in 2020, raising aggregate funds amounting to RM46.7 million (US$10.27 million).
“This amount may be small, but it is certainly moving in the right direction,” Dr Awang said during his welcome remarks.
The SC launched the WQ-FF in November 2020 to facilitate the offering of Islamic funds with Waqf features to enable the growth of the Islamic social finance segment. The development of Waqf was identified as one area of significant potential for social development, greater public good and wealth distribution in the SC’s Islamic Fund and Wealth Management Blueprint launched in 2017.
“The framework allows investors to give a portion or all of their dividends from unit trusts and wholesale funds to charity or charitable projects in the form of cash,” Dr Awang said.
According to Dr Awang, the scope of the framework was expanded last year to include Islamic REITs and Islamic exchange-traded funds to further deepen and broaden the choice of products in this segment.
To further encourage issuers and investors, the SC also expanded its SRI Sukuk and Bond Grant Scheme in 2021 to cover all Sukuk under the SRI Sukuk Framework, including Sukuk issued for the development of Waqf assets.
The grant, which was initially launched in 2018, had only covered green Sukuk under the SRI Sukuk Framework.
“Collectively, such incentives together with the facilitative regulatory interventions by the SC have encouraged greater participation and collaboration in the development of Waqf assets,” Dr Awang concluded.