IslamicFinance.de

Mirroring the conventional banking sector, Islamic finance institutions are turning to IT directors to lead the change towards business innovation. Zubair Ahmed, head of IT and business innovation at Emirates Islamic Bank, says the IT department is no longer viewed as simply an enabler, but as a business innovator in its own right. Ahmed says many of the bank’s innovations are born in the IT department. The bank’s integrated tech innovation approach is yielding results. Emirates Islamic was recognised among Global Finance’s 2016 'The Innovators' of Islamic Finance for EI trade, a Shariah-compliant online trade finance and supply chain platform. In May 2016, it also became the first Islamic bank in the UAE to enable its customers to access basic account services via Twitter.

Malaysia is adapting to fintech revolution by adjusting its financial regulatory guidelines with an Islamic angle. According to Muhammad bin Ibrahim, governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, the recent Islamic finance initiative could be the next game changer. The Investment Account Platform (IAP) is a platform that connects lenders, banks and enterprises seeking funds, one that could shift the role of Islamic lenders to investment intermediaries. Serving as a central marketplace to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the IAP was launched by six Malaysian Islamic banks: Affin Holdings, Bank Islam Malaysia, Bank Muamalat Malaysia, Maybank Islamic, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia and Bank Simpanan Nasional.

Matthew Glover, head of IT and change delivery at Al Rayan Bank, says its use of cloud amounts to a competitive advantage against big banks, and its customer base of 60,000 gives it an edge against challenger banks which are similarly unburdened by legacy. Being an Islamic bank makes Al Rayan’s business different, too. Glover is not himself Muslim, and neither are many of its customers, he says. He heads a team of 14 IT and business professionals. The IT estate is a mix of on-premise and cloud. Apart from the core banking system, which is a Misys platform running on an IBM AS/400, Salesforce is the most important part of the bank’s technology landscape.