Malaysia’s SC (Securities Commission) has brought into force a new framework to facilitate the offering of Islamic funds with waqf features to enable growth of the Islamic social finance segment.
Waqf refers to an Islamic endowment instrument typically associated with social development and philanthropic objectives.
The SC identified waqf as an area of “significant potential” for social development, greater public good and wealth distribution in its ‘Islamic Fund and Wealth Management Blueprint’, launched in 2017.
The newly launched Waqf-Featured Fund Framework aims to broaden the range of Islamic capital market products and provide public access to Islamic funds that allocate whole or part of the fund’s returns towards social causes via waqf.
‘The framework will integrate commercial with social objectives and enable investments for the greater good of society,’ the SC said.
The framework is applicable to existing and newly launched unit trust and wholesale funds, and lays out the eligible waqf recipients and disclosure requirements in order to promote transparency in the investors’ investments and waqf distribution.
Source Regulation Asia