Malaysia Plans To Be A Pioneer of Islamic Wealth Management

CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

Dataran Kewangan Darul Takaful, housing Islamic Banking & Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) and Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA).

Malaysia hopes to be the first country in the world to introduce Islamic wealth management and champion new products under the Islamic financial system, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan.

According to him, Islamic wealth management is an attractive sub-sector and promises good returns in the financial services industry.

“We understand the concept of wealth management from the Shariah perspective that includes physical and spiritual wealth.

“This principle is contrary to conventional wealth management which focuses only on the physical or material wealth,” he told reporters after opening a conference on Islamic wealth management.

Datuk Ahmad said, having established themselves as a global leader in Islamic finance, Malaysia is currently the world’s third largest market for Shariah assets, namely takaful and sukuk, the products and services of Islamic banking.

Ahmad said, to boost Malaysia’s aspiration to be the center of intellectual excellence in Islamic finance, the government stepped up efforts in that direction.

“A few human resource development institutions, including the International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) and the Asian Institute of Finance (AIF) have been established to achieve these intentions.

“I expect the Islamic wealth management will evolve to the next stage in the Islamic finance industry with the availability of infrastructure in terms of human resource development for the Islamic financial institutions and expertise that is existing today,” he said.

The two day conference was organised by the Malaysian Financial Planning Council and the Labuan International Business and Finance. It acts as a platform for networking and exchange of ideas and views on the internal operations of the Islamic financial industry.

More than 300 delegates consisting of policy-makers, research institutes, government agencies and academia participated in the conference.

This article was originally published on mStar and translated by Ezila Kamari with their kind permission.

Read more: Malaysia aims to be a pioneer in Islamic wealth management http://www.establishmentpost.com/malaysia-plans-pioneer-islamic-wealth-management/#ixzz34mOrByNX