SWIFT, in collaboration with The Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), has
announced
the
launch
of a new rulebook to promote
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 shari'ah-compliant message type (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 the AIBIM council.