Hong Kong, 18 June 2015 – Swift, in collaboration with The Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) announce the launch of a new rulebook for the purpose of promoting message standards in the Islamic banking and finance market.
The Islamic finance rulebook has been developed in response to the growing significance of the Islamic banking and finance market. It aims to provide greater clarity around the usage of Shariah-compliant MT messages in order to expedite market harmonisation and increase Straight-through Processing (STP) to improve efficiency and reduce risks and cost.
“With the growing internationalisation of Islamic finance, the rulebook marks a significant milestone in our collaborative efforts. Automation of Islamic finance confirmation flows is now possible through the adoption of international MT messaging standards” says Kiyono Hasaka, Standards Specialist, Asia Pacific. “The future ambition is to automate flows end-to-end covering all major Islamic finance practices”.
Since 2013, the Asia Pacific Standards team at Swift has been working in close cooperation with AIBIM to develop STP-enabled financial messaging specific to the requirements of Islamic financial institutions.
The Swift Islamic finance rulebook will continue to evolve as the Islamic financial industry continues to meet the evolving business needs in the global financial arena.
This version of the rulebook covers three types of Swift confirmation messages:
- MT 300 (Islamic Foreign Exchange Confirmation)
- MT 320 (Islamic Placement Confirmation)
- MT 620 (Islamic Commodity Placement Confirmation)
The future of the rulebook is to include all practices that use Islamic financial instruments, such as previously developed Swift Murabahah solution (cost-plus-sales contract), Mudarabah (profit sharing) and Sukuk (Islamic bonds).
“The collaboration between Swift and AIBIM has resulted in a concise guideline that would facilitate our members to further enhance their efficiency. We look forward for other Islamic financial institutions in other jurisdictions to utilise this solution as well,” says Yusry Yusoff, CEO/Executive Director of AIBIM.
The Swift Islamic Finance rulebook was endorsed by Shariah Advisory Committee of AIBIM and adopted by AIBIM council. It will be available to the Message User Group (MUG) in July 2015. The MUG is a group of users that have registered to use specific messages within a controlled user community. The MUG for the Islamic finance rulebook will also be available for registration at www.swift.com.
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,800 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in over 200 countries and territories. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, visit www.swift.com or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: Swift
About the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM)
The Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) or Persatuan Institusi-Institusi Perbankan Islam Malaysia was established in 1996 as the Association of Interest Free Banking Institutions Malaysia, with objectives of promoting the establishment of a sound Islamic banking systems and practices and also aims at promoting and representing the interests of its 25 member banks and to render where possible such advice or assistance as may be deemed necessary and expedient to members.
Contacts:
Cassie Wong
Text100 Hong Kong
+852 2534 7853
Cassie.Wong@text100.com.hk
Amanda Do
Text 100 Hong Kong
+852 2534 7813
Amanda.Do@text100.com.hk
