IslamicFinance.de

Indonesian regulators are promoting new sharia-compliant financial tools and considering easing foreign ownership limits for domestic Islamic banks, seeking to make the sector more appealing to foreign lenders. This year the financial regulator, Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), launched a five-year strategy that aims to triple the sector's market share to 15 percent by 2023. Attracting foreign capital is part of those plans; the OJK is considering easing foreign ownership ceilings for Islamic banks, now at 40 percent. Meanwhile, companies can raise cash in foreign currencies more easily with Islamic instruments, after the country's national sharia board approved sharia-compliant currency hedging tools in April.