“The future of global Islamic finance belongs to the young and the bold who want to make an impact and create social mobility,” says Shakeel Adli, partner and global head of Islamic finance at CMS and one of the leading authorities on the sector in the UK.
Adli believes the global Islamic finance sector needs to be pushed forward since it has so much promise, but is still in its very early stages.
“The sector is still incredible nascent it’s been around 40 years compared to conventional finance which goes back thousands of years. The sector is still incredibly young and there is a huge amount to do,” he said at a webinar hosted in London by consulting firm EY
British Islamic finance sector, according to Adli, is “being held back by a lack of standardisation and innovation for banks to be able to create products customers want to use.”
He believes Islamic finance products should be competitive in their own right.
“Islamic finance products need to distinguish themselves from conventional finance in new ways, whether it be through exceptional customer service, or being able to secure finance without seeing someone in person, for example. All finance offerings need to be commercially viable to work – being legally or ethically sound isn’t enough,” Adli said.
Adli envisions major growth for Islamic finance product offerings within the ethical finance space. The UK’s $19 billion Islamic finance market could be boosted by highlighting the sector’s synergies with the ethical finance industry.
“There is an opportunity to align Islamic finance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is incumbent on us to leave this planet in a better place than when we found it… we can do this by building global Islamic financing.”
Adli added that the UK is home to progressive regulators that are leading the way globally in fintech and Islamic fintech. Britain is now home to 27 Islamic fintechs, followed by Malaysia with 19, the UAE with 15, Indonesia with 13, and Saudi Arabia and the US with nine, according to IFN FinTech.
Gaurav Dhar, founder of Dubai-based digital payments firm Marshal, said London has a “huge history of creating financial products and exporting them globally”.
“While the UK has more to offer at this stage in terms of technology, the cross-regional fintech relationship is still in the early stages and will continue to grow organically,” Dhar recently told Arabian Business.