IslamicFinance.de

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) is encouraging sharia-compliant lenders to improve their standard of service to increase their competitiveness alongside conventional banks that have greater experience. Citing a 2008 Bank Indonesia (BI) survey, OJK sharia banking head Ahmad Buchori said customers were mostly concerned about the benefits offered by the lenders when choosing who to bank with. The 2008 survey also shows that sharia lenders’ use of verses from the Koran to market their products is not effective despite the fact that more than 80 percent of Indonesians are Muslim, he added.

Aberdeen Asset Management plans to launch a new Islamic compliant fund to invest in overseas assets in the first quarter of next year, president director Sigit Pratama Wiryadi said on Thursday.
Aberdeen, a local unit of the Scottish fund manager of the same name, will be among the first funds in Indonesia to take advantage of recently loosened Financial Services Authority (OJK) rules allowing local fund managers to include foreign assets in portfolios. An OJK regulation issued last week announced managers are now permitted to invest between 51 and 100 % of shariah mutual fund products in overseas securities — from bonds, to stocks and currency.
Bharat Joshi, investment director at Aberdeen, said the fund manager would look for assets in Asia Pacific, the United States and Europe to include in the new fund. Aberdeen currently manages around Rp 2 trillion ($147 million) of the country's equities and bonds. The fund has previously said it is looking to increase assets fivefold over the next five years.