Islamic finance professionals predict regulation of open banking will expand
Kuala Lumpur (14TH September 2022) – New research* shows that most leading Islamic finance professionals expect the sector to move rapidly towards greater use of open banking over the next three years.
The research was conducted by IslamicMarkets.com, a leading platform that provides access to expert knowledge and financial opportunities, to support the Global Islamic Finance Forum 2022 (GIFF2022).
The event, themed as ‘Take the Reins’, is organised by the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), in partnership with Bank Negara Malaysia (the Central Bank of Malaysia) and aims to generate an active discourse on the work required to strengthen Islamic finance’s global leadership position.
The study found that 90 per cent of Islamic finance professionals believe the adoption of open banking by financial institutions, Governments, fintechs and other stakeholders will increase by 2025, with nearly two out of five (38 per cent) expecting a dramatic rise in adoption.
Growth of open banking in Islamic finance will partly be driven by more and better regulations, the study also found. Almost a third (32 per cent) of Islamic finance professionals who were questioned predicted a dramatic increase in regulation, with another 59 per cent forecasting a slight increase in regulation.
The study found that Islamic finance professionals working across a wide range of sectors believe open banking will mean greater use of fintech innovations in Islamic finance such as Waqf, Zakat and Sadaqah.
More than half (62 per cent) questioned, strongly agree open APIs[1] will enable the platforms to access customer accounts in Islamic finance, with the result that customers can make contributions through the platforms. Another 30 per cent slightly agree.
Islamic finance professionals believe that the key benefit of open banking in the Islamic finance industry is to meet strong customer demand and offer more choice with the ability of banks to offer more innovative products.
Other benefits include being able to manage the escalating costs of launching new digital services at scale and developing strategies to monetise customer data to generate new revenue streams. The growth of open banking will also enable institutions to meet regulatory requirements to provide higher transparency for reporting data.
GIFF2022 Chairman Arsalaan Ahmed said, “Increased adoption of open banking in Islamic finance brings a wide range of benefits to the sector and research shows Islamic finance professionals are expecting rapid developments in the sector over the next three years. There is a clear need for more and better regulation around open banking and open finance in Islamic finance, and that is recognised by Islamic finance professionals who are expecting strong progress.”
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[1] API stands for Application Programming Interface – a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.