Islamic Banking
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Islamic Private Banking Is Too Concerned About Wealth Accumulation

Although there has been increased interest in Islamic wealth management lately, an authority on this segment of the financial world says there has been excessive focus on wealth accumulation at the expense of more important issues.
This article exploring views about Islamic private banking introduces a new member of the editorial team for WealthBriefingAsia: Titien Ahmad. For more details about this highly experienced writer and observer of the industry, scroll down to the bottom of the article.
Professor Shamsher
Although there has been increased interest
in Islamic wealth management lately, an authority on this segment
of the
financial world says there has been excessive focus on wealth
accumulation at
the expense of more important issues.
“There are still a lot of opportunities yet
to be tapped in Islamic finance with better infrastructure,”
Professor Shamsher
Mohamad Ramadlilli Mohd, told this publication recently in an
interview.
“The focus of Islamic wealth management has
been around the wealth accumulation and generation aspects given
the
development of the bond and equity markets and the ready client
demand. However,
there are other opportunities in Islamic wealth management such
as wealth
distribution, protection, purification that are not explored
sufficiently by
practitioners,” he said.
“Practitioners in markets where Islamic
wealth management has taken shape such as Malaysia, Bahrain and
Saudi tend to
focus on wealth generation as they have tapped on the growth of
the banking and
capital market sector in that market. For example, tapping on the
demand for bonds
through ‘sukuk’ issuance,” he said.
The developing Islamic capital markets has
generated a myriad of savings and investment products that adhere
to the Shariah
investment principles forbidding interest, uncertainty and
investment in
companies dealing with areas that are prohibited in Islam such as
gambling,
alcohol, tobacco, arms and pornography.
Previously, Shariah-compliant products tend
to be introduced by boutique investment companies focusing on
this market but
recently non-Shariah specialists are also starting to tap on the
growing
demand. Franklin Templeton launched three Shariah-compliant,
Luxembourg-domiciled investment products earlier this year.