IslamicFinance.de

From January 1, Indonesia is introducing a ban on crypto coins as payment options. The Indonesian government wants to ban forms of payment processing and make payment processing available only by owning a banking license. Such moves show how governments could crack down on crypto coins, while being generally accepting of fintech payment systems, even going as far as licensing them. Indonesia recognizes fintech firms as those providing payment systems, market support, investment management or risk management, P2P lending, financing providers and other financial services. All new fintech products in Indonesia would be tested in a sandbox environment before receiving a license.

Waqf have played an important role in the social and economic development of Muslim societies. However, many waqf properties in Indonesia suffer from abuse and neglect. Chairman of the Indonesian Waqf Board (BWI) Mohammad Nuh urged the transformation of the great potential of waqf into a real force to support the national economy. Current development of waqf is hindered by five core issues: misperception, legislation, governance, professionalism and the availability of funding. Important issues such as the provisions of a survey or census on waqf and tax incentives are lacking in the current legislation. A survey on waqf is crucial in mapping the current problems and status of waqf assets. In Indonesia waqf institutions are largely not bankable and hardly have a channel to financial institutions in financing the development of their properties. The newly appointed Indonesian waqf board may revive waqf institutions by identifying priorities, careful implementation and better administration.

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) recently licensed Indonesia’s first full-fledged Islamic fund management company, Paytren Asset Management (PAM). This newly established Islamic fund manager is another milestone in the development of the country’s Islamic capital market.

The world’s financial landscape has changed fundamentally over the last few years. Islamic equity funds experienced strong growth during the second half of the 1990s. In 1996, there were 29 Islamic funds, valued at US$800 million. Nowadays, Indonesia plans to become a leading Islamic finance hub. The Jakarta Islamic Index has 30 sharia shares accounting for Rp 2.1 quadrillion with 32.7% of market capitalization.

The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Bank Indonesia and the Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) organised an Industry Engagement Session. The event was entitled "The Global Islamic Finance Industry and the IFSB" and took place on 2 October in Jakarta. Anwar Bashori, Head of Islamic Finance at Bank Indonesia, shared his optimism that there is strong potential for further growth of this sector in Indonesia. He also touched on the importance of Halal tourism and food industry, and the various challenges and opportunities related to Fintech. In the panel discussion Prof. Volker Nienhaus commented on the emerging trend which is expected to enhance financial inclusion through the greater use of fintech. Ahmad Buchori shared the current issues of Islamic finance in Indonesia. Dr. Rifki Ismal’s presentation focused on developing the Islamic social sector to enhance the Indonesian economy. The session ended with discussions between the participants, where the industry players reaffirmed the important role of regulators. There was a request for more platforms to address and discuss key issues and concerns of the Islamic finance players.

Investing in microfinance institutions (MFIs) has become increasingly popular in the last decade. According to a 2016 report, microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) have seen capital inflows of US$1.1 billion per year since 2006. The market size at end-2015 was US$11 billion, a fivefold increase from US$2.1 billion in 2006. While MIVs usually target countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the report points out that Asia has witnessed the largest growth in this respect. Matthew Martin, founder of microfinance investment fund Blossom Finance, points out that microfinance can better serve the needs of communities than the top-down, one-size-fits-all model of retail banking. The fund is currently limited to US accredited investors due to legal issues, but Martin hopes to open it up to other investors too. Blossom Finance only invests in shariah-compliant MFIs specifically focused on Indonesia.

In this interview Dr. Adnan Chilwan, CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), speaks about the Indonesian market and the positioning of Dubai Islamic Bank. In March 2017 Indonesia’s Bank Panin Syariah rebranded to Panin Dubai Syariah Bank (PDSB) and DIB holds a 40% interest. Dr. Chilwan believes Indonesia has great potential and the regulator is quite supportive of Islamic finance. In his view, the success of DIB is the result of its change in positioning. The bank has not compromised Shari’ah, but has a better understanding of customer needs. DIB is competing with the largest players within every region and is aiming at full inclusion to bank everyone.

Commonwealth Bank and Mastercard announced a collaboration to better financial inclusion for Indonesian women. This collaboration will have three key pillars: enhancing formal networks by knowledge exchange among women-owned businesses, innovating through new digital learning tools and investing in research. Early in 2017, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) released a research showing that Indonesia’s financial literacy and inclusion indices stood at 29.66% and 67.82%. OJK called upon the industry to implement inclusion programmes to achieve their target of 75% for the financial inclusion index by 2019. Commonwealth Bank and Mastercard will help drive the growth of women-owned businesses by educating them about customer and market trends. Additionally, both will invest in research to continue the conversation about financial inclusion.

Consulting firm Solidiance launched its new report entitled Digital Evolution in Indonesia's Banking Industry. In this report millennials are projected to account for around 58% of Indonesia's total population by 2027. Indonesia has a population of more than 260 million people and only 36% of the population are connected to financial institutions, leaving in the region 150 million citizens unbanked. The report also noted that digitalization helps provide greater opportunities for banks to seize the market share. The market will be soon occupied with digital-native millenials who prefer to use the new channels available them. The Solidiance report estimated the number of Internet users in Indonesia is expected to explode in the coming years from as low as 35% of the population in 2015 to an estimated 68% in 2020.

The #Indonesian National Alms Agency (BAZNAS) agreed to support the widening of electricity access to the poor in Jambi province in July. This marked the first official disbursement of the Islamic zakat fund to support the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Indonesia.

According to the Central Statistics Agency, Indonesia’s poverty rate is at 10.70% as of the second half of 2016. The rapid growth of Islamic finance presents an opportunity to address the social and economic gap. However, behind the success of Islamic finance is the reality that this development is diverting from the fundamental goal of Islamic law. Mehmet Asutay, a professor in Islamic finance at Durham University, argues that the development of Islamic financial institutions have neglected Islamic social goals. The Baitul Maal wat Tamwil (BMT) can be one solution in empowering the poor. As a microfinance institution, the BMT may provide better outreach as it is more accessible to the poorest people. The small amount of credit may encourage them to engage in financing activity. BMT lacks formalization and supervision, the government is expected to strengthen Islamic microfinance by linking BMT to robust capital injectors.

In Indonesia the newly established Haj Fund Management Agency (BPKH) has pledged to match the performance of its Malaysian counterpart Tabung Haji. The BPKH will manage Rp 99.3 trillion in haj funds, gathered from 3.4 million people who have paid deposits to go on the haj, by investing in sharia-compliant instruments. BPKH chairman Yuslam Fauzi says the agency aims to be the world’s largest haj fund manager within 10 years through diversified investment with an 8 to 10% annual return. President Joko Widodo inaugurated the executive board of the BPKH, which is taking over management of the haj fund from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Indonesia has sent more than 200,000 people to Mecca on the haj. The waiting list for the haj is 15 to 20 years.

Indonesia, that is so far a behind in developing a comprehensive Islamic finance industry, has taken a big leap towards the creation of a supportive framework for Shariah-compliant banking end of July. On that day, the country’s President Joko Widodo inaugurated the National Committee for Shariah Finance, as part of the government’s push to make Indonesia a global hub for the Islamic financial industry.
It has been tasked to accelerate, expand and develop Shariah-compliant financial services to support the country’s development, National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said in a statement. The ministry is the one that introduced its master plan for the development of the country’s Islamic finance future last year.

Although between 85 and 90 % of the Indonesian population is Muslim, Islamic banking, also known as sharia banking, remains underdeveloped in the country. In 2016 sharia banking assets only accounted for 5.3 % of total assets in Indonesia's banking sector. But at the same time in countries like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia these figures are much higher at 51.1 % and 23.8 %, respectively.
In order to boost Islamic banking in his country, President Joko Widodo formed the National Committee for Sharia Finance. This institution was installed to investigate and tackle the challenges surrounding sharia banking in Indonesia. Together with the Indonesian Islamic Economy Expert Association, KNKS is tasked to unite the vision and strategy of all stakeholders in this industry and turn the country into a global center for Islamic banking.
General Chairman of the IAEI Bambang Brodjonegoro said, the challenges in Indonesia's Islamic banking industry involve both the supply and demand side. The lack of business sectors that are based on Islamic banking makes it tough for the industry to develop, he added.

Fitch Ratings Indonesia has assigned a National Long-Term Rating of 'A(idn)' to PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jambi's proposed Sukuk issuance. The proposed issuance is the bank's first sukuk with a total amount of IDR 120 billion and a maturity of three years from the issuance date. 'A' National Ratings denote expectations of low default risk relative to other issuers or obligations in the same country. Bank Jambi's rating reflects Fitch's view that the bank is important to the regional government of Jambi province on Sumatra island. Bank Jambi is owned by the government of Jambi province and by the governments of various municipalities. Although Bank Jambi is a small bank in the Indonesian banking industry, it has a strong franchise and has an important role in supporting development in the region.

The government of #Indonesia recently offered retail sukuk to the public to raise funds to help plug a gap in the state budget. From 2008 to 2017, the Indonesian government issued retail sukuk to tap into the country's growing middle class. In 2017, Indonesian retail sukuk became the highest sukuk issuance in the world, with a total value of Rp 31.5 billion (US $2.37 million). Despite its success, the total value of retail sukuk, corporate sukuk and conventional bonds is still considered small compared to the amount needed to finance priority infrastructure development projects. With the lack of a government budget, specified portfolios need to be explored. Green sukuk is a subset of sukuk that finances green assets. As green projects are relatively new in Indonesia, they need time to set up and engage with the nation's development plans.

Indonesian banks are expected to be cautious boosting credit disbursement because the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is currently high with the gross NPL ratio hovering above 3% since mid-2016. Banks are now more selective in terms of credit disbursement, but this undermines the pace of the nation's macroeconomic growth. Although Indonesia managed to end the five-year economic slowdown in 2016, it is still far away from Indonesian President Joko Widodo's ambitious 7% GDP growth pledge. In fact, he revised his projection for Indonesia's 2018 GDP growth to 5.6% from a previous projection of a 5.4 - 6.1%. Thus, it should basically be impossible to see a 7% growth rate by 2017.

GCC is expected to account for about 31% of sovereign bond issuances from emerging markets this year. The expected 2017 sovereign issues will be distributed among GCC, Eastern Europe Middle East Africa and Latin America, according to forecasts by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Issues from the GCC has been increasing rapidly mainly due to low oil prices, with some new issuers in 2016, and analysts expect the 2017 issuance to continue to be high. Among those, Kuwait inaugurated the external sovereign debt market with $8 billion (Dh29.3 billion) to finance a budget deficit resulting from low oil prices. Sovereign issuance for 2017 is forecast to be 6% higher compared to the previous year. In 2016, sovereigns issued $135 billion, mainly from Latin America, while corporates issued about $300 billion, mainly from Asia. Analysts expect gross sovereign external issuance to come in at $144bn in 2017.

Maybank Islamic is turning to its home markets for growth, in particularly Indonesia where it manages $2 billion worth of assets and is aiming to compete with domestic Islamic banks. According to CEO Mohamed Rafique Merican, the bank could grow beyond its core markets of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, but expansion in other markets would be opportunistic. Indonesia remains a key market for the bank, after Malaysia which accounts for 90% of the bank's business. As part of the ASEAN banking integration framework (ABIF), Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed in August to give their banks greater access to each other's markets. The move would give Malaysia's Islamic banks a potential lead to tap into the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, and one that continues to restrict to foreign lenders.

Indonesia's finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati announced the government plans to issue a global sukuk this week. Indrawati did not give further details on the planned issuance. An official has previously said the government will issue global sukuk in the first half of 2017. According to Thomson Reuters, Indonesia has given initial yield guidance of 3.75% for a five-year tranche of the U.S.-dollar sukuk and 4.5% for 10-year tranche.