Market practitioners from the UK and Malaysia have made a series of recommendations on how the Shariah finance industry can maximize Islamic fintech for social good having identified six key challenges the sector is facing.
The recommendations were made at the Islamic Fintech for Social Good Roundtable in London convened by Securities Commission Malaysia and Capital Markets Malaysia, which gathered UK and Malaysian ecosystem builders, regulators and Islamic fintech players to discuss how Islamic fintech and digital market platforms can be leveraged to scale up and lead innovation in social impact and social finance.
According to these experts, tech-enabled Islamic finance solutions hold the potential to address various social issues; however, they remain underutilized due to a host of challenges faced by start-ups providing Shariah compliant products and services.
Among the impediments identified include the lack of proper effective impact measurement methodologies and tools which hamper product development, investor outreach and strategy design.
A total of seven recommendations were made including a suggestion for a light-touch regulatory approach and the establishment of a venture capital-accelerator model of funding.
To read the outcome of the roundtable, click here.